By Patricia Cohen | The New York Times
The Senate Finance Committee is scrutinizing nearly a dozen private museums opened by individual collectors, questioning whether the tax-exempt status they enjoy provides sufficient public benefit to justify what amounts to a government subsidy.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the committee’s Republican chairman, sent letters this month to small galleries like the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, Conn., and Glenstone museum in Potomac, Md., as well as Eli and Edythe Broad’s new $140 million art museum in Los Angeles, asking for information about visiting hours, donations, trustees, valuations and art loans.
“Senator Hatch’s concerns are neither surprising nor new. The IRS has consistently held private foundations and their donors to a higher standard of accountability. The internal revenue code already reflects these concerns and, if applied effectively, protects the public from the potential misuse of private foundations. Another important protection of the public is education regarding the limitations placed on gifts to private foundations — what deductions are available for gifts to private foundations and what types of transactions are prohibited.”
~ Tim Heileman, Rose Law Group estate planning and asset protection attorney
