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Message: <blockquote data-quote="King_Stannis" data-source="post: 715724" data-attributes="member: 324">Donating goods to charity is a little tricky. When you donate goods over a certain amount, there is some bookkeeping that needs to be done. You need to ascertain the fair market value of the goods - which is not the cost it took you to make it. All other things aside, the value of a bunch of 1st edition rulebooks, for example, is not very high. It's the price a willing buyer and a willing seller will agree upon in an arms length transaction. Considering the relatively small market segment that this would appeal to for, say those 1st edition rulebooks, you can see where the donation can get to be more effort than its worth.Charitable donations are also limited in loss years for corporations. That means that they may have to wait to take their hit against taxable income - something that, generally, you try not to do when it comes to taxes. You want to postpone paying taxes for as long as possible, which means trying to get as many currently deductible expenses as possible against the current year's tax. As I said, that's generally the rule. There are always tax planning exceptions to fit individual cases. So having a relatively small charitable donation that may or may not be deductible in the current year (depending on the company's overall tax position) for which you've had to assess a fair market value and arrange for pickup/delivery is not often worth the time. Often it's just easier to scrap it. That's why most corporations give via cash, which is better (generally) for everyone involved.As for just "giving it away", I'm not sure where the tax law fits in. I don't think there's anything against it, per say, it just may not make sense business-wise. I think I've heard John Nephew say as much on these boards, in regards to a bunch of unmovable 3e books Atlas had. It would have cost him more to give away then to just liquidate.Hope that helps.</blockquote>

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