Most amazing tax loophole of all time -- Jesus H. Christ, we Americans ARE the most innovative nation

NY Times Editorial: Get Me the Head of the Hunt Scammer

For all the anxiety that new tax legislation can generate among bipeds, a bit of mercy is being offered for the fleet African springbok and other big-game targets. Senator Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who heads the Finance Committee, is trying to close a loophole that allows hunters to write off safaris as charity by giving game trophies to museums. This scheme lets appraisers tote up the costs of things like travel, equipment and guides to inflate the value of the trophies, which often end up at places that market themselves as a way to "Hunt for Free."

The scam was uncovered when the Humane Society of the United States investigated "canned hunts" - the hundreds of enterprises in this country where hunters pay to enjoy more or less guaranteed kills of big-game animals bred for the purpose of being easily cornered on enclosed acreage. The investigators found tax abuse involving donated trophies, then tracked the scheme to overseas safaris.

"The equivalent for non-hunters would be if someone bought a sweater in Paris, donated it to Goodwill and took a tax deduction for the entire trip to Paris," Senator Grassley told The Washington Post, which found hundreds of "charity trophies" stacked like glassy-eyed cordwood in dusty storage rooms billed as museums. The mammoth tax bill approved last month by the Senate includes a provision strictly limiting a donation's value to the cost of a trophy bought on the open market. Senator Grassley must now confer across the Capitol on closing the loophole to see if the House is, well, game.