Good morning! There's a Autumn-like feeling out here today. Sorry summer, your days are numbered! We are a small academic library and recently had a patron donate 100+ books and is requesting a receipt for tax purposes. They are business and leadership books-mostly pretty old, a few classics, and few newer. I have a couple of questions regarding the issuing of a receipt: - -What amount should we consider issuing for these books--an amount for all the books donated, or only the ones we are keeping? We are only keeping about a dozen of the donated books. -Any ideas on what we should do with the remaining books? -Anything else I should consider that I have not asked about? Thanks. Becky Rebecca Grai Head of Circulation Strosacker Library Northwood University 4000 Whiting Drive Midland, MI 48640 Office: 989.837.4333 grai@northwood.edu northwood.edu<http://www.northwood.edu/> Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodU/>
The answer to this one is simple. According to IRS rules, you can't provide a receipt that gives any valuation. The receipt should verify only the number of books donated. Whether you keep them or not makes no difference. If the donor wishes to get a valuation for tax purposes, I would suggest using the following site: https://www.addall.com/used/ [https://www.addall.com/images/addall-used.jpg]<https://www.addall.com/used/> Buy Used Books and Out-of-Print Books Online Book Finder<https://www.addall.com/used/> Buy used books online, out-of-print books, old books by our Book Finder? No problem AddALL! Why waste your time going from site to site? Search and Compare among 100,000 online used book stores, millions of books by using our website! www.addall.com Back when I could itemize deductions, I picked the median value for each book. The IRS never questioned my figures. For the remaining books, add them to your book sale if you have one; offer them to a neighboring library that has book sales if you don't; consider homeless shelters, nursing homes, schools, etc. if the books are of potential interest. On the other hand, you might consider the simplest solution as far as staff time goes and just recycle them. I'm aware of the various book consignment sites like Better World Books and Thrift Books, but they aren't worth considering for such a small number of titles. The same is true for selling them on Amazon or eBay. I hope this helps. Bob Dr. Robert P. Holley Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University 13303 Borgman Avenue Huntington Woods, MI 48070-1005 email: aa3805@wayne.edu phone: 248-547-0306 ________________________________ From: Michlib-l <michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org> on behalf of Grai, Rebecca via Michlib-l <michlib-l@mcls.org> Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 9:55 AM To: michlib-l@lists.mcls.org <michlib-l@mail2.mcls.org> Subject: [Michlib-l] donated books [EXTERNAL] Good morning! There’s a Autumn-like feeling out here today. Sorry summer, your days are numbered! We are a small academic library and recently had a patron donate 100+ books and is requesting a receipt for tax purposes. They are business and leadership books—mostly pretty old, a few classics, and few newer. I have a couple of questions regarding the issuing of a receipt: - -What amount should we consider issuing for these books--an amount for all the books donated, or only the ones we are keeping? We are only keeping about a dozen of the donated books. -Any ideas on what we should do with the remaining books? -Anything else I should consider that I have not asked about? Thanks. Becky Rebecca Grai Head of Circulation Strosacker Library Northwood University 4000 Whiting Drive Midland, MI 48640 Office: 989.837.4333 grai@northwood.edu northwood.edu<http://www.northwood.edu/> Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodU/>
Thank you so much everyone for all your input on my question. I now have enough information to make an informed decision on how we are going to handle this situation. Your collective knowledge and experience is astounding! Becky From: Grai, Rebecca Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 9:56 AM To: michlib-l@lists.mcls.org Subject: donated books Good morning! There's a Autumn-like feeling out here today. Sorry summer, your days are numbered! We are a small academic library and recently had a patron donate 100+ books and is requesting a receipt for tax purposes. They are business and leadership books-mostly pretty old, a few classics, and few newer. I have a couple of questions regarding the issuing of a receipt: - -What amount should we consider issuing for these books--an amount for all the books donated, or only the ones we are keeping? We are only keeping about a dozen of the donated books. -Any ideas on what we should do with the remaining books? -Anything else I should consider that I have not asked about? Thanks. Becky Rebecca Grai Head of Circulation Strosacker Library Northwood University 4000 Whiting Drive Midland, MI 48640 Office: 989.837.4333 grai@northwood.edu<mailto:grai@northwood.edu> northwood.edu<http://www.northwood.edu/> Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodU/>
Another suggestion: We have a book cart labeled FREE CART in our foyer on which we place donated books that are not going into our Book Sales. NOTHING stays on that cart for long! Best wishes, Mary Beth Reasoner Children's Librarian Tecumseh District Library ---------------------------------------- From: "Grai, Rebecca via Michlib-l" <michlib-l@mcls.org> Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 11:30 AM To: "michlib-l@lists.mcls.org" <michlib-l@mail2.mcls.org> Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] donated books Thank you so much everyone for all your input on my question. I now have enough information to make an informed decision on how we are going to handle this situation. Your collective knowledge and experience is astounding! Becky From: Grai, Rebecca Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 9:56 AM To: michlib-l@lists.mcls.org Subject: donated books Good morning! There's a Autumn-like feeling out here today. Sorry summer, your days are numbered! We are a small academic library and recently had a patron donate 100+ books and is requesting a receipt for tax purposes. They are business and leadership books-mostly pretty old, a few classics, and few newer. I have a couple of questions regarding the issuing of a receipt: - -What amount should we consider issuing for these books--an amount for all the books donated, or only the ones we are keeping? We are only keeping about a dozen of the donated books. -Any ideas on what we should do with the remaining books? -Anything else I should consider that I have not asked about? Thanks. Becky Rebecca Grai Head of Circulation Strosacker Library Northwood University 4000 Whiting Drive Midland, MI 48640 Office: 989.837.4333 grai@northwood.edu northwood.edu Facebook
participants (3)
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Grai, Rebecca -
Mary Beth Reasoner -
Robert Holley