Advocacy
Fair-Market-Value Tax Deduction for Artists
Representative Amo Houghton (R-NY) reintroduced the Artists' Contribution to American Heritage Act in the House of Representatives in 2001. The Senate version is known as the Artists/Museum Partnership Act. Both bills seek to restore a tax deduction to artists that was eliminated in 1969.Currently, an artist, writer, or composer can only deduct the cost of materials used to create the work, which is not a large incentive to donate, particularly since the majority of artists, writers, and composers in this country earn very little. Many national and important regional artists, writers, and composers sell their original works to private collectors or to institutions abroad, which effectively keep them from ever being shown or heard in the United States. A fair-market-value tax deduction for artists, writers, and composers will help stem the losses to U.S. museums and libraries of many great works that have been sold to private collections or competing museums overseas.
The Artists/Museum Partnership Act passed as part of the Senate's Budget Reconciliation Bill at the end of May; it was, however, removed from the bill during the House-Senate Conference. There was a good possibility that it could be attached to a House bill called the Community Solutions Act of 2001, though this had not been made final at press.