On Thu, 8 Feb 1996 [log in to unmask] wrote:


>
> Back in September there were some interesting exchanges about the rules
> governing appraisals of donations to museums in the US, when donors will
> subsequently receive tax benefit.  Can anyone tell me when those rules came
 in?  My impression is that thay did> not yet apply in the mid eighties...>
>
Final rules were published by the IRS in 1988, but proposed rules had
been published in 1984, and the IRS (and the press) had been looking at
the problem since at least 1981.  So anyone who was playing fast and
loose in the mid-eighties probably should have had their head examined.

The rules do not require that the museum have no known connection to the
appraiser, but they do require (in some detail) that any connection not
be so great as to cause a conflict of interest.

Andy Finch
AAM Government Affairs
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