How do you interpret the IRS ruling that only the portion of membership
fees above the fair market value of services/benefits provided are tax
deductible. When this ruling came out a few years back, we received an
(what I think may have been a very conservative) opinion that with
admissions, newsletters, mailings, receptions and shop discounts,
essentially none of tour individual or family membership fees were tax
deductible.

I was in a meeting today with several other museum membership
professionals and learned that their interpretation was that these type
of fees *were* deductible.

I'm puzzled.

I'm curious about other museums and how they have interpreted the
deductibility of membership fees.

Robb Hyde
Canton Museum of Art
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