The Art Fund today welcomed the Chancellor’s commitment to allow people and businesses to part-pay their tax bills by donating art to the nation – alongside a new pledge of additional funding for the scheme.

As part of his Autumn Statement (29 November 2011), George Osborne confirmed that from April 2012, individuals and businesses will be able to part-pay their Income and Capital Gains Tax bills by donating pre-eminent works of art and cultural objects to UK museums and galleries. Currently only inheritance tax can be settled in this way, under the ‘Acceptance in Lieu’ (AIL) scheme. The two schemes – AIL and the new ‘Gifts of Art’ scheme – will share an annual ‘cap’ which was expected to be £20m a year. But the Chancellor announced total tax reductions allowed under the two schemes will be increased to £30m a year, which could be great news for public collections.

The Art Fund has long campaigned for a new tax incentive for lifetime gifts of art, and has been working closely with the government on the new scheme. The fine detail of the scheme will be announced in the Finance Bill on 6 December.