37
votes
How the ultrawealthy use private foundations to bank millions in tax deductions while giving the public little in return
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Authors
- Jeff Ernsthausen
- Word count
- 3822 words
"Charitable Foundations" being a tax dodge for the rich is already a pretty well known "open secret", though I suppose that not enough people are aware of it or else our politicians would have pretended harder that they were going to do something about it.
It's not too surprising that these organizations are pretending to be art museums, as art pieces are also thought by some to be a common vector for the rich to launder money with as their value is extremely volatile and subjective.
I feel like it's pretty widely understood. The artist Hito Steyerl has made a lot of work on the subject, and Christopher Nolan used an art freeport for a set piece in "Tenet."
The major concern, aside from money laundering, is that collectors will buy an art piece for pure investment and seal it in a climate-controlled vault like a freeport, effectively removing it from the world's sight for as long as the collector likes (or worse, lose it).