H.R. 1190, “The Artist-Museum Partnership Act of 2011″, has been introduced again, this time sponsored by Rep. John Lewis [D-GA]: “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that a deduction equal to fair market value shall be allowed for charitable contributions of literary, musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions created by the donor.”
The Graphic Artists Guild wholeheartedly supports this legislation, and has supported all nine previous versions in the House and Senate since its first introduction in 1999.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways & Means on 3/17/2011. The Guild urges artists to write to Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, [R-MI] and ask him to move the Committee to approve this bill.
There is no email address for the House Committee on Ways & Means. You’ll need to fax a letter to the Committee’s office 202-225-2610. We’ve provided a letter for you to copy and personalize; the link to the letter is below.
Also go to POPVOX and vote your support of this bill. (This is separate from writing to the House Committee.) You’ll need to set up an account with POPVOX to have your vote registered but it’s well worth it: “Congressional staff and lawmakers log into POPVOX to measure the pulse of their district, while members of the press will use POPVOX to research stories and hold Congress accountable.”
Before 1969 artists, composers and writers could donate self-generated works to a non-profit institution and receive a fair-market-value deduction. Subsequent to 1969, as part of broad tax reform, we can deduct only the cost of materials.
Currently, artists making a charitable contribution to a museum or cultural institution are only allowed to deduct the cost of their raw materials instead of the fair market value of the art donated. This creates a huge incentive for an artist to wait until after they die to donate something to a museum, because it’s valued at fair market value in their estate, but if they donate while alive, they get only a deduction for the costs of their materials.
As a result of the 1969 legislation, many works of art, which would have been contributed to American institutions, have been sold into private collections or abroad, in effect depriving the public of these works. (For example, Igor Stravkinsky planned to donate his papers to the Music Division of the Library of Congress the month the Tax Reform Act of 1969 was signed into law. Instead, the papers were sold to a private foundation in Switzerland.)
If the widow(er) of an artist donates a work of art created by his/her deceased spouse, the widow(er) can take a fair-market-value deduction, as can the collector of the artist’s work. In addition, the artist’s estate is taxed at fair-market value. Finally, a patent holder, who contributes his/her patent, can take a fair-market-value deduction for the contribution.
The benefit to the nation, when artists are encouraged to contribute their work during their lifetime cannot be overemphasized. It allows the public, historians, scholars and others to learn from the artist his/her aesthetic intention for the work, how it was intended to be displayed, performed or interpreted and what influences affected the artist.
1. Most nonprofit institutions have no acquisition funds to purchase creative works and must rely on donations. Thus, increasing incentives to donate will improve public collections.
2. As federal support for arts and cultural institutions is cut, the tax code should encourage donations from our most creative citizens for future generations to enjoy.
3. The tax code strives for “horizontal tax equity” — equal treatment to all similarly situated taxpayers. Artists should be treated as any other taxpayer donating a work of appreciated property.
4. Encouraging donations directly from artists will make more art accessible to the general public more quickly than if their works first had to pass through the hands of collectors.
We wholeheartedly support this legislation, and have supported all previous versions since its first introduction in 1999.
The Graphic Artists Guild is a 501 (c)(5) not-for-profit national labor union founded in 1967, representing graphic artists working in all aspects of commercial art and design including illustrators, graphic designers, animators, cartoonists, web designers, surface/package designers, textile designers, storyboard artists, and exhibit and display designers. We produce the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, now in its 13th edition and considered the “industry bible.”
All material in this post courtesy the Graphic Artists Guild.
