Art Donations and the Tax Code

Your impassioned appeal (editorial, June 4) to “bring back the tax break for art,” while well-intentioned, is both naive and misleading. In effect what you are suggesting is that the tax rate should go back up to 50% or more so that the public can have the benefit of admiring works of art in museums. Do you really think this will fly with Congress? Or are you advocating a revolt of the rich?

The editorial is misleading because of the statement that the 1986 tax code “effectively abolished that subsidy by eliminating taxpayers’ ability to deduct the full appreciated value of their gifts to art museums.” It did nothing of the sort for the ordinary taxpayers, who can still make their deduction based on the full appreciated value of their gift at the time they make the gift.

It is only when a taxpayer has reduced his tax liability to zero as a result of other deductions that the principle of “alternate minimum tax” applies, and the taxpayer can then deduct only what he originally paid for the work of art.

In any event, this is a very complicated issue that is not well understood even by accountants or lawyers. Your naivete therefore is understandable but rather irresponsible.

PRATAPADITYA PAL

Senior Curator

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

L.A. County Museum of Art