Click here to Join: Yazzy’s Fine Art Charitable Donation Program

Now is the time - at the start of the year...to start the process for donating works of fine art.

According to Ed Okil, the Executive Director of the National Institute of Appraisers for tax purposes, the IRS only accepts the Fair Market Value of an artwork as a basis from which to begin your calculations - no matter what the circumstance of the deduction or payment may be.

Fair Market Value

According to the IRS, Fair Market Value is general the price that art would sell for on the open market. It is the price that would be agreed on between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having a reasonable knowledge of the work being offered.

You must be able to support any deductions with written documentation. For a piece valued at under $500.00, this may be as simple as a bill of sale or receipt signed by the person from whom you purchased the piece.

Click here to Join: Yazzy’s Fine Art Charitable Donation Program

Supporting Requirements

If the piece is valued at $500.00 to $5,000.00, you'll be required only to list the details of your gift and whatever documentation you have on IRS from 8283 which is used when you have made a non-cash charitable contribution. For contributions exceeding $5,000.00 in value, your documentation must include not only this form, but also more complete information about the donated property and an appraisal from a qualified source, You will need statements concerning the physical condition of the artwork and the extent of any restoration having already been done on the piece. In most of these cases, you have to actually attach a copy of this appraisal to your return.

The US provides generous tax incentives for private benefactors, so what's stopping the UK doing the same?

What do works by Mark Rothko, Constantin Brancusi and John Singer Sargeant have in common? You would be right to guess that UK museums would struggle to buy one on the open market. But in America works by these artists are among those in a gift worth £1bn to the Seattle Art Museum from 53 of the region's top private collectors.

Is this a one-off? Apparently not; The Art Newspaper reports that a number of US institutions have benefited from similarly fabulous gifts. And these gifts are made by wealthy philanthropists while they are still alive.

The US has long benefited from a culture of cultural giving based on proper recognition of donors, and extremely generous tax incentives. 100% of the value of gifts of cash or works of art to museums can be deducted from income tax; and there's a bill being put before Congress to be even more generous, allowing artists to donate their works to public collections. But it's not just the US; Australia, Ireland and Canada all allow gifts of works of art to be offset against income tax, albeit less generously.

A fortnight ago, David Hockney announced that he was giving his largest ever oil painting - 'Bigger Trees near Warter' (2007) - to Tate. This unique work is made up of 50 canvas panels that brilliantly bring together the tradition of 'plein air' painting with the latest digital technology on a monumental scale. Hockney also called for more artists to follow his example and donate work to Tate's public collection.

Tate has been built on such acts of private generosity, beginning in 1897 when the sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate paid for the original building on Millbank (now Tate Britain) and gave the nation his collection of British paintings. Some of the most important works in Tate's collection have been acquired as a result of the generosity of artists - Mark Rothko's 1970 gift of the group of nine paintings known as the 'Seagram Murals', or the largest public collection of Naum Gabo's work anywhere in the world which came to Tate largely from the artist in 1977, and the magnificent gifts from Henry Moore in 1978 and Francis Bacon in 1991. Then a new generation of artists responded to our 2004 collection campaign including Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Louise Bourgeois and Richard Long.

lets you help a worthy cause or needy individual and qualify for a tax break.

DONATING APPRECIATED PROPERTY IS NOT LIMITED TO THE WEALTHY

While many people think that donating appreciated property is just for wealthy people making large contributions, CPAs typically agree that the concept can work equally well for modest donations. If you would like advice about this charitable giving opportunity, consult with a CPA.

Why Donating Makes Sense

Donating art through the Yazzy’s Fine Art Charitable Donation Program can provide you with possible benefits such as:

• Reducing or possible eliminating the tax on capital gains on appreciated assets.

• Receiving an estate and gift tax deduction.

• Creating a lasting legacy for you and your loved ones

• Receiving maximum value for your art investment

• Doing something good for a worthy charity, needy individual or cause

• Peace of mind knowing that you have taken a legitimate write-off – the right way

Amid financial turbulence in global markets, the Nov. 12 event raised a record $2.1 million. New York, New York, it's a helluva town.

``Even with the market declines, a lot of people have made a lot of money over the past number of years,'' said Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. ``There's still a lot of wealth in New York and a lot of charity.''

The city's financial warriors, society matrons and celebrities are raising record donations for the arts, education, health care and social services during the fall benefit season. While nonprofits nationwide are worried that corporations and individuals may pull back, the diversity of New York's wealth may insulate it from choppy markets through next year.

Why Donating Makes Sen$e

Donating art, antiques and other collectible objects to appropriate qualified organizations may provide you with benefits such as:

• An immediate income tax deduction
• Avoidance of the tax on capital gains on appreciated assets
• An estate and gift tax deduction
• The creation of a lasting legacy with their organization of choice

TIP #1: Donate Appreciated Objects

You generally will receive a higher income tax deduction if you donate an art object or collection that has appreciated in value over the time they have owned it. This is called capital gain property. Generally, property is capital gain property if its sale at fair market value on the date of the contribution would have resulted in long-term capital gain. Capital gain property includes capital assets held more than one (1) year. The general rule is that you can usually deduct the full fair market value of the donation as of

The works were commissioned by the bank over the past five years for the Deutsche Guggenheim exhibition space in Berlin, a joint venture between Deutsche Bank and the Guggenheim Foundation. The gift also includes works by Phoebe Washburn, John Baldessari and Hanne Darboven.

``We are proud to have supported these artists at pivotal moments in their careers and now to have them in our permanent collection,'' Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Foundation, said in a statement.

The works, which were fully owned by Deutsche Bank, include four new black-and-white prints by Wall. They offer social commentary on the bleaker aspects of western society: One depicts men waiting in a street, hoping to be selected for temporary jobs.

Kentridge's installation ``Black Box/Chambre Noire'' (2005) consists of animated film, objects, drawings and a mechanical theater in miniature, the statement said.

Deutsche Bank began collecting art in the 1970s and owns about 50,000 works from the past century. Previous artists from whom it has commissioned works under the same program include Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist and Rachel Whiteread.

If you donate your art to the proper organization in the proper way, you may deduct the value of your donation from your state and federal income taxes.

You want to look for two things prior to taking this approach:

1) A qualified appraiser who's appraisals are acceptable to the I.R.S; and

2) A qualified 501(c)(3) organization s this technique.

We aheve worked with a number of artlovers and investors to secure a solid tax write-off ther right way.

If you require assistance, see our Yazzy’s Fine Art Charitable Donation Program

Anthony d’Offay, a London-based gallery owner, has donated his collection of modern art, worth £125m ($247m), to be jointly owned and managed by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate galleries. In return, he received £26.5m, the original cost of the 725 art works, hailed as one of the most important collections of postwar and contemporary international art.

The money, plus £1.5m of costs, was met by £10m grants from Holyrood and Westminster, £7m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £1m from The Art Fund independent charity.

David Barrie, director of The Art Fund, said: “We have wonderful tax incentives for the dead – but the living get nothing. We must do more to encourage giving by the living.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, said that for a donation of comparable generosity one would have to go back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the foundation of the Tate and Courtauld collections. “A gift of this magnitude will transform the opportunity to experience contemporary art in the UK,” he said.

Andy Burnham, the culture secretary, said he would invest time and thought over how others might be encouraged to follow this “outstanding example”.

Mr Burnham was chief secretary to the Treasury when he helped to arrange that £14m of tax due from Mr d’Offay would be paid by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The collection will be known as Artist Rooms, and will take the form of 50 rooms of contemporary art by 25 artists, including Joseph Beuys, Gilbert & George, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst