Indirect Aid to the Arts

Michael O'Hare and Alan L. Feld

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1984, vol. 471, issue 1, 132-143

Abstract: Most government support of arts institutions is indirect—the result of charitable deduction provisions of the federal income tax, property tax exemptions extended by local governments, and other tax provisions. The money that government forgoes through these provisions must be made up by higher taxes for all taxpayers. The public, however, has little say about how these funds are spent. By its very nature, the income tax deduction places the decision-making power over arts institutions in the hands of those with high incomes. Those with high incomes receive a greater tax benefit for each dollar they contribute, increasing the amounts they donate, which increases the likelihood of their influence over those who run arts institutions, and they are allowed to place restrictions on the use of their gifts. Moreover the property tax exemption encourages arts institutions to invest heavily in real estate, which is not necessarily in the public's best interests. Replacing some indirect subsidies with direct subsidies and granting tax credits for donations in place of tax deductions would go a long way toward making the system more equitable.

Date: 1984
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716284471001015 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:471:y:1984:i:1:p:132-143

DOI: 10.1177/0002716284471001015

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().