Advocacy
Senate Finance Committee Approves Care Act
In mid-June, the Senate Finance Committee voted to send the CARE Act (S. 1924) to the Senate floor with the Artists Fair Value Market Deductions Bill attached. This bill would restore to artists, writers, composers, and scholars the ability to take a fair-market-value tax deduction for works they donate to an appropriate nonprofit institution. Although art collectors can deduct the fair market value of works they donate to a museum or library, under current law artists can only deduct the cost of the materials they used to create the works.Should the full Senate approve the CARE Act, it will then go to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate bill and its companion bill in the House: the Faith-Based Initiatives Bill (H.R. 7). Since the artists’ bill is not in the House bill, it will be up to the House Ways and Means Committee to determine if it will accept the artists’ bill as part of the final package.