Appraisal and donating a collection

On 11/22/2005 at 11:54 AM Tony Eros wrote: It depends a lot on the size and valuation of your collection and its relationship to your overall tax bill. IOW, I've done perfectly legitimate cash donations to 501(c)3's and got audited anyway. If the valuation is modest, simply get a receipt from the organization that calls out the amounts as they see them. Quite honestly, old computer gear is one of those things that it's impossible to place an objective value on. The best thing is for the recipient of your largesse to value it at what they figure it would cost to otherwise acquire. Also, remember that the tax deduction for donations can be amortized over 5 years, so don't be in a big hurry to take the writeoff in one year. You want to avoid annoying those darned IRS computers. Cheers, Chuck