LACMA's Fractional Gifts: Why the Lazarofs Might Have Chanced It UPDATED

In his Art Law Blog, Donn Zaretsky addresses my question of why Janice and Henri Lazarof were willing to bestow upon the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a major fractional and partial gift of modern artworks in the current unfavorable tax climate for this type of donation, which museum officials claim has essentially frozen this form of largesse.

Zaretsky writes:

The answer, it seems, is that technical corrections have at last been introduced in Congress that will fix the problematic estate and gift tax consequences that were created by the enactment of the new law last year. I'm told by a lobbyist close to the negotiations that the corrections have bipartisan support and have already been vetted by the Treasury, so it's assumed by all concerned that they will eventually be enacted, and with an effective date retroactive to the date the original legislation took effect, thus covering the Lazarofs' gift to LACMA.

LACMA probably could tell us if Donn is right about the Lazarofs' thinking, but my two e-mails asking the museum's press office about this have yet to be answered.

In the meantime, there is, even now, one advantage to giving in installments: Donors are only allowed to take charitable donation deductions up to a certain percentage of their adjusted gross income. Giving in installments may allow them to take a larger total deduction, by spreading it over several tax years.

UPDATE: Barbara Pflaumer of LACMA's press office said that the spam filter ate my two e-mails. But she had no further insights to provide on the Lazarofs' reasons for going ahead with their fractional gift despite the unfavorable tax treatment: "This was a decision they made, not LACMA," Pflaumer observed.