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DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE: ART PATRON?

February 18, 2005

Four Iowa Senators have proposed perhaps the greatest gift ever to our state's starving artist community. Their gift comes in the form of SF 132,

  An Act providing an individual income tax credit for charitable
      contributions of fine art or written materials made by the
      artist or author and including retroactive applicability date
      provisions.

As a credit, this would provide a dollar-for-dollar reduction in Iowa taxes for the "fair market value" of the artwork, based on "appraised value of the fine art or written materials as established pursuant to requirements set by rules adopted by the director." This means that artists and authors could pay their Iowa income tax by donating their own artwork to charity.

As only authors and artists are truly qualified to judge literature and art, the "rules adopted" would have our state's authors and artists deciding each others tax liabilities. Given the humanity and generosity of the artistic community, the effect on their tax liabilities would be just dandy.

In the age of the internet, everyone's an author and everyone's an artist. Upon the (unlikely) enactment of SF 132, I plan to scam the state make a generous contribution of an original digital artwork, "Tacks Shelter, Volume 2." It is an ironic and iconic view of the tax system, and I'm sure it's worth just an incredible amount of money. Behold:

Tacks Shelter, Volume 2. Copyright Joe Kristan, All Tax Credits Reserved

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