What is a Professional Artist

Daniel Grant writing for the Huffington Post has some interesting thoughts on how both the government and the art market looks at professional artists.  Of course there is no simple answer, and there are of course several definitions, with the governemtn and  IRS having several versions as well as the several versions from the private sector.

Overall a worthwhile article for appraisers to read, as we do come into contact with artists and artist estates.

Grant writes

The United States government has answers for both questions, however the answers contradict each other because different agencies are looking for specific kinds of information. The Census Bureau (whose data on artists is extrapolated by the National Endowment for the Arts), for instance, claims that there are something over 100,000 visual artists in the country. The decennial census asks at what job an individual worked on April 1st, or what career activity occupied the largest portion of that day, and, for statistical purposes, the answer to this determines one's employment area. Someone who painted most of that day is a painter unless the respondent indicates otherwise.

The Internal Revenue Service, on the other hand, does not consider someone a professional artist -- able to deduct art-related expenses from gross income on tax forms -- unless that person made a profit on the sale of his or her work in three out of five years. The government, therefore, may deem someone an artist on one hand but a rank amateur on the other hand.

To read the complete article, click HERE.