Advocacy
Tax Policy
CAA monitors and takes action on tax reform policies that seek to preserve both exemption and philanthropic incentives, including tax deductions for charitable gifts, for individuals, nonprofit arts organizations, colleges and universities, and corporations.CAA at Arts Advocacy Day
May 2008
Delegates representing CAA participated in this year's Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, held March 31-April 1, 2008. Click here to read more. Artists-Museum Partnership Act
April 2008
The Artists-Museum Partnership Act now has a record thirty supporters in the Senate; eighty-eight members in the House of Representatives support the bill, which also surpasses previous support. Click here to read more. Join Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv
October 2007
Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, and New York that promotes and advances the arts in America, invites you to join its Cultural Policy listserv to receive the latest in arts advocacy news. Click here to read more. Fair-Market-Value Tax Deduction
August 2007
Federal legislation that would allow visual artists, composers, and authors to claim a tax deduction for the fair market value of works donated to collecting institutions continues to make incremental progress on Capitol Hill. Click here to read more. Fair Market Value for Artists
July 2007
As of the end of April, twenty-two senators and twenty-six representatives signed on to the "Artist-Museum Partnership Act." Click here to read more. Senate Passes Artist Donation Bill
January 2006
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would allow artists to donate their work to a museum and take a tax deduction for the full market value of the work. Click here to read more. Action Alert - Artist Deduction Bill Advances In Senate
October 2005
Please contact your Senators and ask them to support S. 1780. Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) have introduced S. 1780, a bill that includes several provisions that would provide incentives for charitable giving. It is also known as the CARE Act and is nearly identical to legislation that the two Senators introduced in the last Congress, and that passed in the Senate but was not ultimately enacted. Of special interest to the arts is the "artist deduction" language, which would allow artists to claim a tax deduction for the fair market value of works that they donate to arts organizations for mission-related uses other than resale. In the House, a similar bill does NOT include the artist deduction language, as was the case in the last Congress. In a positive development, however, Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-MO) has indicated that he would be in favor of including the artist language in a final compromise version of the charitable incentives bill. Both the House and Senate bills include the IRA Rollover provision, which would allow individuals to donate funds to charities directly from their IRA accounts without paying any penalty for early withdrawal. To contact your senators, please visit http://www.collegeart.org/advocacy/000148/. Click here to read more. CAA Takes Stand on Noncash Charitable Contributions
September 2005
CAA has joined eighty national, regional, state, and local museums, educational and social-service groups, and other membership organizations to cosign a letter responding to Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) and the Senate Finance Committee’s increased interest in reforming regulation and oversight of nonprofit organizations, including changing how taxpayers take deductions for donations of noncash gifts to museums and other nonprofits. Click here to read more. Artists Fair Value Market Deductions Bill Stalled
November 2002
The Senate did not take up the CARE Act (S. 1924), which contains the Artists Fair Market Value Deduction Bill, before adjourning in early October. As reported in the September 2002 issue of CAA News, the Senate Finance Committee voted last June to send the CARE Act to the Senate floor for a vote. Click here to read more. Senate Finance Committee Approves Care Act
September 2002
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. Click here to read more. Fair-Market-Value Tax Deduction for Artists
September 2001
In July's Advocacy Update, it was reported that a bill for a better tax deduction for charitable gifts of artworks by artists might be attached to a House bill called the Community Solutions Act of 2001. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The next step will be to try to include the tax-deduction bill in the minimum-wage bills that will most likely be introduced in the House and Senate later this year. Click here to read more. Fair-Market-Value Tax Deduction for Artists
July 2001
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. Click here to read more. Legislative Update: Repeal of Estate and Gift Tax
August 2000
On August 31, President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill that sought to eliminate the Estate and Gift Tax. On September 7, Republicans in Congress attempted a veto override, but were unsuccessful in garnering the two-thirds support required to override the president's veto. Click here to read more.