Charitable Contributions – (Non Cash) – What does it take?
The IRS is a documenting agency. You have the documents and they have to give the deduction and there are no two ways about it. But without the documents, they give us nothing. They do not believe us. So we have to prove it.
First, you must get a receipt from the charity with the date the items were donated. Second, you must have a list of the items by their initial cost, their fair market value now and third you must not have received anything of significant value in exchange. Taking a picture helps a lot of all the items as this proves what was given. At the same time list out each individual item and provide those values. Do it as close to when the items were given as possible, as our memory fades over time and so will your deduction.
If you can get a letter from the charity or on its receipt recognizing the value of the items.The more you get the less the IRS can challenge.
If the donation is for more than $5,000 in total fair market value, do this on steroids. As the IRS will not believe anything. There is nothing of fairness to the IRS.
