Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Free Authors!
Monday, May 7, 2007

I received this email from the AuthorsGuild. Interesting and important.

When collectors donate manuscripts, letters, and diaries of an author to libraries or universities, they are entitled to deduct the fair market value of those literary papers from their income for tax purposes. When authors donate their manuscripts and other papers to libraries or universities, they're permitted to deduct only the cost of the physical materials used to produce those documents (the cost of paper, ink, toner).

The difference, of course, is immense, and immensely inequitable to authors who choose to donate their papers for scholarly research.

We now have a good chance to right this wrong, and we'd like your help.

BACKGROUND

For seven years, the Authors Guild has supported proposed changes to the tax code that would allow authors and artists to deduct for tax purposes the appraised market value of their own work (such as manuscripts, first editions, or research notes) that they donate to museums, universities, and libraries. Current tax laws permit the creators to deduct only the value of the materials used in creating the work, such as the expense of the paper and ink in the case of an original manuscript. Collectors and others, however, are permitted to deduct the fair market value of donated manuscripts.

The "Artist-Museum Partnership Act" was recently reintroduced in the House and Senate to correct this inequity. In the Senate, the bill was introduced as S. 548, by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Robert Bennett (R-UT). In the House, H.R. 1524 was introduced by Representatives John Lewis (D-GA), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX).

Labels: Books

Posted by B Feiler at 8:00 AM
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