Donating Collections To A Local Philatelic Society - What Happens?

Okay, one can donate a collection to a philatelic society. That begs two questions:

1. What "fair market value" does the donor claim for tax purposes? Twenty cents on the catalog dollar? 33 cents? 50 cents?

2. What happens to the donated collection? For discussion's sake let's assume there's nothing remarkable in the collection - just hundreds of stamps, most under $1 CV, maybe a couple dozen between $1 and $100 CV.

1. You want a tax deduction for a donation of a stamp collection? You have to have some proof of value.
2. To donate something to someone you (normally) can have no expectation that they will hold the collection for any amount of time; that they will consult with you about disposition; and if they dispose they will get anything for it. Likely, it would go to auction for whatever they can get.

The exception to all this is something like a work of art that has provenance, a proven high value, and that you transfer to a gallery or some such institution with a signed transfer agreement. That agreement could prohibit their ever disposing of the donation. If they don't want it any more, it reverts to you.

2. Varies by society but options could include breaking down the collection and selling it in a member-to-member auction if the society runs auctions with its members, selling it whole to a member, re-donating it to a kids' stamp club, giving it to a charity and in some cases discarding it. Some donations of this type are refused, as well. My local stamp club will not accept all donations of this type. Societies do not want to be a "dumping ground" for unsellable common material, so inquire before you send it and provide them with scans or images of representative pages.

Chris

If you want to donate, I would donate to a legitimate charity not a philatelic society. In the past I used to donate to Stamps for the Wounded. There is no question that that is a charitable contribution and they will provide documentation for IRS purposes. However, they do not set a value on the donation; you do. I would send a set number of stamps, and list the valuation of the minimum value for a stamp as designated in the forward to the Scott catalog and send a copy of that page of the catalog along with the letter from SFTW stating the number of stamps donated as the value determined by the number of stamps x the minimum value. Naturally this is a relative value but the only published value for a routine stamp by a legitimate authority (Scott catalog) and IRS personnel are generally not stamp collectors. All they are looking for is a documented proof of the donation and the rationale for the valuation of the donation. I felt good about supporting that program.

Great replies, thanks.

I donate to the APS who uses the stamps for things like the Stamps Teach program. I usually count the used stamps at 8 cents each and the mint at face value. The APS verifies the number of stamps received and issues a letter stating the value, which I did provide, in the letter. Done deal, no problems with the IRS.

APS = "American Philatelic Society?"

Not so simple in Canada anymore. Now, Revenue Canada also want the value for the item or items you donated. Your cost. Then if you receive more than original cost or value of the item you have to claim a capital gain. If the tax receipt is for less, than you can get a capital loss.

In other words you could end up paying more tax than what all the trouble was worth.

Very simple in the UK. You give your items to charity. No tax dodge.