littleboyblu87[at]yahoo.com wrote:

- quote -

Two things to remember here.

1. the donee organization is not the arbiter of value, in
fact they don't put a value on items contributed.

2. If "they" say 5$ each, that's probably correct as to fair
market value, which is THE correct value. How you come up
with 5 - 20 times that I can't understand; and neither
would the IRS.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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littleboyblu87[at]yahoo.com wrote:

- quote -

Determination of FMV for donation purposes is the
responsibility of the DONOR, not the charity. For the items
described, that sounds like yard-sale prices or thrift store
prices.

- quote -

The charity "receipt" is merely an acknowledgement that the donation
was made, not an affirmation of the value placed on the items. If the
total non-cash donations are over $500 for the year, form 8283 is
needed to document the donations.

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<littleboyblu87[at]yahoo.com> wrote

- quote -

Not necessarily. Seems they are compiling good documentation.

- quote -

Most charities will supply one, although they won't place a
value on it.

- quote -

What they'll say is, "thanks for your contribution", and let
you place the value on it.

--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
taxman at negia.net

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I have a relative who is cleaning out their house. They've
got a lot of stuff like clothes, art supplies, tupperware
containers, etc. They plan to donate this stuff to charity
and then deduct that from their taxes. What they're doing is
writing down how much each item is worth. For example, if
they have 10 pairs of pants and 10 shirts at $5 each then
that's $100 that they'll deduct. However, I've been going
through their list of prices and I figure that they'll have
between $500-$2000 worth of stuff to donate.

If they deduct that on their taxes as a charitable donation,
won't/can't they get in trouble? I think I read that
donations over $250 require a receipt. I don't know how that
would work but I find it hard to believe that some
organization is gonna say all that junk is worth $250 or
more.

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