You leave art open until a valuer writes

A painting, a sculpture or another work taken out of the ordinary household contents gets a line of its own. At the start a photo and a description are enough: what you see, the size if you measure it, a signature if it can be read, and where it hangs. The value stays empty. You set the status to valuation requested as soon as you have approached a valuer, with the date of that request. Until the report is there, nobody fills in an amount because a comparable work once seemed expensive. A memory of an auction is not a source. An invented auction result does not go into the list, not even as an estimate.

The ordinary household-contents line and the art line must not overlap. Note on the household contents that special pieces fall outside the estimate. A photo in the file is the source of the description, not of a price. More than one work means more than one line, unless a collection is deliberately kept together. Then you describe the extent and you keep the photos, and there too the value stays empty until one report covers the collection. You do not later split a report yourself into partial prices that are not in it. What the report does not name stays without a figure.

Two fields stay available, even if both are still empty. The value on the date of death is what a valuer supports as at that date. An insured sum on an old policy is a contract amount, not a sale value. Only if you mark that policy as a provisional source may it go in the note, and you replace it with the report. Value now can be the report, or a later sale. Sale proceeds and a valuation are not the same figure. Book a sale separately, with an invoice, and leave the valuation as the earlier source. The valuer's invoice is an item of its own once it exists. You do not deduct that invoice from the value of the art.

A child who already had the work at home, or a loan for use, you do not quietly turn into a transfer. Note where the work physically is, and since when. You link a loan-for-use agreement as a document. Without an agreement, the place it is kept is a fact, and the question of ownership is a task for the notary, without an amount. The photo stays attached to the line so that everyone means the same object. A title the family uses and a text on the back of the work can differ. Put both in the description if you see both. Do not choose the prettier name to make the line look fuller than the document is.

An empty art line is not a valuation and not tax advice. Ervazo fills in no auction price and only keeps the source you link. The source of the amount is the valuer, in a report with a date. Until that report is there, the photo and the description remain the content of the line. The Belastingdienst is the source for what a work of art means in a return. You do not take that step by choosing a figure yourself. An estimate without a valuer you mark as an estimate, or you leave the field empty. Empty is the ordinary state here, not a forgotten line.