Congress Tackles Trophy Hunting Tax Scam

With some fine-tuning to a few key phrases in a massive tax reconciliation bill moving through Congress, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, demonstrated that the pen is mightier than the sword—or, in this case, the shotgun. 

Incensed that wealthy trophy hunters have been exploiting the use of charitable donations to write off the costs of their deadly hobby, Senator Grassley tightened the screws in the current tax code in the bill. The bill cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, November 15, and was approved by the full Senate on Friday morning, November 18. The House is expected to tackle the bill after Thanksgiving recess.

Senator Grassley's action came after a lengthy HSUS investigation into this trophy hunting tax scam and after an April exposé landed on the front page of The Washington Post. "Of all the tax scams that have ever been exposed, this must be one of the most unconscionable. These people are not only cheating the system, but they're squeezing the U.S. Treasury to finance their killing safaris around the globe," said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. "Once Senator Grassley reviewed the evidence from our investigation and from media reports, he clearly saw the need to take immediate action."

Big Game Big Tax Breaks

During the course of a two-year investigation of the trophy hunting industry, HSUS investigators uncovered a tax scheme that is fleecing the U.S. Treasury—while fueling the trophy hunting industry. The scam involves wealthy hunters writing off the cost of hunting vacations; HSUS investigators estimate that hundreds of hunters annually write off hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. The tax deductions are engineered by questionable trophy appraisers who advertise with slogans like "Hunt For Free," "Hunting in a Tight Money Economy," and "7 Secrets of Tax Deductible Hunting."

The scheme works like this: trophy hunters kill an animal and have it skinned or mounted. Snapshots are taken of the trophy and sent to a friendly appraiser. The appraiser makes a grossly exaggerated estimate of the trophy's value.

The hunter, with the help of the appraiser, then donates the trophy head to a "museum," where the game mount often ends up in a storage unit, a garage, or, in one case, an old railroad car, and is never seen by the public. The hunter promptly uses the overly generous appraisal as a tax write-off to a charitable institution.

In April 2005, on the same day that The Washington Post ran a front page expose of the scam, Senator Grassley held a congressional hearing and highlighted the trophy tax abuse scheme, telling the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service that the next head needing to be mounted was that of "...the appraisers who've been promoting this scam."

Within days, news stories decrying the abuse appeared across the country, including The New York Times, USA Today, Arizona Republic, Providence Journal, San Antonio Express, and NBC News.

Congressional Action

"I appreciate the work of the Humane Society of the United States in bringing the taxidermy tax scam to light," Grassley said. "The phoniness of this kind of donation called out for congressional action."

Making good on his word, Senator Grassley proposed language in the tax reconciliation package that will curb the worst abuses, and close the loophole that allows trophy hunters to stick American taxpayers with the bill for their lethal hobby.

Currently, charitable donations of real property valued at less than $5,000 do not require any proof of real value, except for cars. The IRS simply takes taxpayers at their word. Because of the obvious abuse of the system, Senator Grassley proposed to treat trophy mount donations like cars, and require the use of "comparable sales data" to accompany IRS tax forms claiming the donation. So instead of writing off the "replacement costs" of his mount—costs that could include flying to Africa to kill an antelope—a donor could only claim what it would cost to buy the antelope trophy on the open market. That figure will be considerably less.

For donations over the $5,000 threshold, Senator Grassley has proposed that donors obtain an appraisal by the IRS Art Advisory panel, which reviews income and estate tax appraisals involving art, or by a certified agent, again using comparable sales figures. These steps will dramatically reduce the majority of abuses of the system.

"This abuse is no different than what we saw with car donations," Grassley said, "With car donations, someone cheated on his taxes to the tune of hundreds of dollars and the charity got $50 out of it. With taxidermy donations, the museum gets a pittance for a dusty boar's head that sits in a railway car until it sells, while the donor gets big tax breaks. This is completely unacceptable. We need to take the tax cheating out of taxidermy, and today's action is an important step." 

"We thank Senator Grassley for helping to expose this scam and putting the tax back in taxidermy," said The HSUS's Pacelle. "These pseudo-museums offer wealthy trophy hunters a tax break, bilk the federal Treasury of untold millions of dollars, and encourage more killing of our precious wildlife, including rare species."

See the Video

The Face of Trophy Hunting

Related Links

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Trophy Hunting