Daniel Grant has a story in the Maine Antique Digest about the fractional gifts legislation that was introduced in Congress in October (about which see here). No news about its progress.
Grant offers the following summary:
"The new legislation, titled the 'Promotion of Artistic Giving Act of 2007,' would restore the open-end length of the gift, only requiring that the donation be completed within nine months of the death of the donor. It would again allow escalating value deductions during the term of the gift, as long as the Internal Revenue Service's art advisory panel reviews the higher appraisals. Additionally, the bill would repeal the requirement stated in the Pension Protection Act that requires museums have 'substantial physical possession of the property' during the donation process."
The first two sentences are largely correct, but I don't think the last sentence is right. The "substantial physical possession" rule would still apply (except that, since, as Grant points out, gifts would no longer have to be completed within a 10-year period, presumably the museum would have to take possesson at some point prior to the new nine-months-of-death deadline).
