Making Money from Art is Professional (in the US)

The US Tax Court last week handed down a ruling that seems to be good news for artists who want to make money while working at related jobs. In this case a professor of studio art at Hunter College, Susan Crile, won a case against the IRS over sales of her art.

The question at hand was whether her job as a professor included the creation and sale of artwork, or whether that sale was part of a separate profession (for tax purposes). This case directly speaks to visual arts, but is likely applicable to others who do this sort of thing - writing fiction while working as a copyeditor, selling portraits while working as a staff photographer and so on.