Title

The Artist's Tax Dilemma

Authors

Wendy J. Gordon, Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1979

ISSN

1543-9852

Publisher

Tax Management

Language

en-US

Abstract

An artist's first job is to create. Somewhere down the line, most artists find they have a second job, which is to sell. Many artists resist involvement in the second task (with mixed results), yet beyond it the artist encounters a duty even more dreaded: to pay taxes.

The taxman is primarily interested in those strong enough to create and lucky enough to sell. Lack of interest in selling is no guarantee of the taxman's disinterest, however. When one artist gives a painting to his grandchild as a birthday present, or another bequeaths a sculpture to her husband, the taxman will be invisibly present at the birthday party or the deathbed, making valuations and counting on his fingers.

Recommended Citation

Wendy J. Gordon, The Artist's Tax Dilemma , in 4 Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal 20 (1979).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1914