CAM encourages you to take action on an important federal issue: the deductibility of non-cash contributions. A letter from Edward H. Able, Jr., President and CEO of the American Association of Museums (AAM), is below regarding this call for action. An issue brief has also been developed by AAM to provide additional information and assist you in contacting your elected officials.

Thank you for your participation in federal and state issues affecting museums. Please feel free to contact Celeste DeWald, Executive Director, at the CAM office at (831) 471-9970 or cam@calmuseums.org with any questions or comments you may have. For additional information about CAM's legislative advocacy, visit Legislative News.

AAM CALL TO ACTION REGARDING NON-CASH DONATIONS

Dear Colleague,

Congress needs to hear your voice now on the single most important tax-exempt issue for museums: preserving the current full-market value deduction for non-cash gifts.

I wrote to AAM's institutional members about this issue several weeks ago. In recent days, we learned from Senate Finance Committee staff that legislation likely will be introduced and considered by the committee in early June. Our goal is to ensure that any charity reform measure does not harm museums' ability to attract donations. This leaves us very little time to educate Congress on the critical role tax incentives for non-cash gifts play in supporting museums.

AAM has already sent a letter to the Committee commenting on the worst of several proposals currently circulating on non-cash gifts.

Nevertheless, we very much need you to contact your Senators and Representative at this point. We created an issue brief to help you write your letter to educate your legislators. I will address this issue directly at the Annual Meeting general session on Wednesday, May 4, but I need your help now.

The Finance Committee clearly intends to move its reform proposal quickly through the legislative process. Rather than wait for a swift-moving unfavorable bill that might well contain radical departures from the current law, we want to make clear to Congress how critical this issue is for your museum. They need to know that taking the wrong legislative action, such as reverting to a cost-basis only deduction for non-cash gifts, would be devastating-as those of us who lived through the 1986-93 cost-basis only era know all too well.

At the same time, however, we must be careful not to leave the impression that we think that there are no current problems in valuing non-cash gifts. This is often an inexact art. There have certainly been cases where the Art Advisory Panel at the IRS has found over- and under-valuations by appraisers for donors. All of us would favor a practical system for more exact valuations as long as the cost does not exceed the benefit and good-faith donors are not discouraged by its cost or complexity.

Here is the message you need to deliver to your legislators: This is such an important issue for your museum-and for the educational benefits you provide to the public and their constituents-that any actions they take to make the valuations process more accurate must not be radical or precipitous, so as to not damage the transfer of private collections to the care and trust of our public museums.

I anticipate that we will call upon you again in the coming weeks when the Finance Committee introduces and considers their charity reform proposal. Please act now so that the House and Senate can develop an appropriate solution that will not harm the ability of museums to attract donations.

Sincerely,

Edward H. Able, Jr.
President and CEO
American Association of Museums