Why should there be a problem for claiming the actual cost
of juice, yeast, and perhaps some sugar? They are all legal
products to buy and donate. Just because they sat around for
awhile shouldn't be a problem. I do hope it wasn't a Baptist
church that was benefiting from the donation.

ak

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- quote -

If I donate one of my legally owned "assault weapons", which
I cannot sell, to a California law enforcement agency, can I
not take a deduction?

I guess that is the same question, but my opinion is YES.

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Dick Adams <rdadams[at]smart.net) wrote:

- quote -

I don't see why not. There's nothing in the statute saying
that what is contributed has to be something that can
legally be sold.

I imagine it would be the same situation with contributions
of stock to privately held corporations. The stock often
can't legally be sold without going through a lot of
bureaucratic requirements. But I've never seen a case
disallowing a deduction for a gift or bequest of that kind
of stock.

Stu

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Background:
Federal law allows individuals to homebrew beer and wine w/o
paying taxes on it. The limits are 100 gallons per adult and
200 gallons per household. Quite obviously every State has a
say in this too. This beer and wine may not be sold. I know
of one exception to the not-for-sale provision in a rural
county which is not part of this question.

Situation:
A homebrewer of wine donates two gallons to a church for a
social event four times a year and the church sells it by the
cup. Let us presume that the church has all the appropriate
licenses or permits so that where this occurs is irrelevant.

The homebrewer can document that the ingredients cost him $20
per gallon. (I'd have just contributed to 4-liter bottles of
Gallo. <G> ) The question is "Is this a deductible charitable
contribution?"

This is no question to me that he is making a charitable
contribution. His annual tax benefit is between $40 and $48
so this is a de minimus tax issue. My problem is that he is
getting a deduction for something he can not legally sell.

Any opinions?

Dick

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