How shopping for the primary Ferrari Luce for $40 million saved a billionaire $13 million in taxes

Earlier this month, 87-year-old optometrist-turned-businessman-turned-philanthropist Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim bought a Ferrari Luce at a Sotheby’s public auction for $40 million. The auction was part of a charity effort to benefit the Ferrari Foundation, which funds global education initiatives.

The $40 million buying prices on the auto was more than 36 times the model’s presale estimates of $1.1 million. (The Luce retails for $640,000, but the auctioned car had a higher price tag because it had a pre-production chassis.)

Now, it seems Wertheim may end up getting a large chunk of that purchase back, as part of a longtime American tradition of the country incentivizing the nation’s wealthiest philanthropists into giving back.

Large charity donations like Wertheim’s can lend themselves to massive tax write-offs as a result of America’s tax system. Automotive content creator and television presenter Peter Greaves first brought attention to the potential for Wertheim to gain millions back on the purchase of his Luce in a recent Youtube video.

When Wertheim files his 2026 taxes, he would have to subtract the estimated sale value of $1.1 million from the $40 million the car sold for. As of the IRS’s 2026 tax rules, he would then have to take away a 0.5% floor of his adjusted gross income, which Greaves estimated to be $200 million, leaving $37.9 million. The U.S.’s 2/37ths rule created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which caps tax savings of itemized deductions at 35% compared to the previous 37% for top earners, would further reduce the sum to $35.85 million. According to tax law, 37% of that total could be claimed, meaning Wertheim could receive more than $13 million back from the U.S. government for his purchase.

Wertheim, who did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment, has made no public comments about possibly taking advantage of the tax write-off for the Luce, or for any previous charity auction purchases.

The philanthropist has an estimated net worth of $4.8 billion and has previously participated in a previous charity auction for luxury vehicles, reportedly paying $26 million for the Ferrari Daytona SP3, or “599+1.” He has donated more than $200 million to various causes, including  $50 million to UC Berkeley Optometry and $100 million to Baptist Health Foundation. In February, Wertheim paid $2 million at a Mar-a-Lago charity event for a private visit with President Donald Trump at the White House. It’s not his only recent brush with politics: Wertheim briefly launched a Congressional bid in Florida’s 22nd District earlier this year.

For its part, the Maranello, Italy-based carmaker has weathered controversy around the rollout of its EV. Former Ferrari president and chairman Luca di Montezemolo joined analysts and investors in mocking the model as ugly and decidedly un-Ferrari-like at a time where other luxury automakers were scaling back their own EV efforts amid low demand. Ferrari may be getting the last laugh however: the Financial Times reported last month that Ferrari exceeded its short-term sales goal of 500 units. 

How the Trump administration transformed charity tax breaks 

Tax breaks for philanthropy is an American tradition dating back to 1917 after the passage of the War Revenue Act, in which Congress created a federal income tax deduction for charitable gifts as part of an effort to keep private philanthropy alive and well during World War I, which would relieve the U.S. from funding essential social welfare programs. Those benefits have slowly expanded over the last century.

But the Trump administration has made it more for the wealthy to get money back for their donations come tax season, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act effectively slashing the benefit from 37% to 35%, with itemized taxpayers having to deduct donations only in excess of 0.5% of their adjusted gross income.

The policy changes with lower tax incentives may alter the future of philanthropy itself. The new 35% limit could reduce donations by between $4.1 billion and $6.1 billion, according to the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Experts warn that fewer big donors—or big donors giving less—would place a larger burden on middle-class givers to bridge a gap that isn’t realistic as financial pressures for less-wealthy households increase.

“The nonprofit sector says that every dollar matters, and so incentivizing small donations from every household could have a meaningful impact for certain kinds of organizations,” Elena Patel, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told CNBC last November. “But the truth is that those kinds of contributions, however, just are not the bulk of charitable giving in the charitable sector.