What is the value of a used printer? Key word is used? Is it the value of what you would find on eBay or Amazon....or a deprecation of the original purchase cost...but the product changed hands.
This printer costed supposedly $310 when it was first purchased - 2004. (2004 is considered old!) I now can get it new one Amazon for $160 but I can buy it used on eBay for $36. So how much would a tax receipt be worth? $310 less 10% per year for business depreciation, $160 for a new one but it isn’t new, or $36 for the fair market value for a used one on eBay?
Anyone have any ideas?
2007-02-26 13:01:10 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ Other - Taxes
Well - problem is I am being told it is worth $36 if I donate it..and I feel it is worth $279 because of the depreciation. I am donating this to a nonprofit organization. They can find it on eBay for $36 used and $160 new on Amazon. So, how much should I expect a receipt for? Does that make sense?
2007-02-26 13:15:56 · update #1
But they are not buy it...it would be an in kind donation. They don't feel it is as worth as much as I do since they can find a new one on Amazon for $160 and on eBay for $36. In 2004, I paid $310 for it. Yes, it is used. So, what is the right amount. I don't want to write the wrong number off.
2007-02-26 13:32:36 · update #2
The amount you can deduct is the fair market value at the time of your contribution. No way that a used printer purchased in 2004 for $310 would be worth very much. The $36 that one is selling for on ebay is probably fair, if not generous. I'm sure you know that prices of printers, as with most other computer items, have dropped drastically in the last few years.
Your basis has nothing to do with its FMV, so even if you used it in your business and depreciated it there, it's not worth the cost you'd have it on your books as. FMV is what a willing seller could sell it to a willing buyer for.
And actually, although this has no bearing whatsoever on your question, a printer would probably be depreciated over 3 years, not 10, so its book value would be down to zero in 2007, if you hadn't just expensed it in the first place. Also, depreciation on items being depreciated is EVERY YEAR, so it wouldn't be just down 10% by now, unless you're saying that 10% is the depreciation for three years, which means you're saying that the useful life of a dot-matrix printer is 30 years - you'd give an IRS auditor a good laugh while you tried to argue that one!!
Look on ebay to find a few printers of the same make and model that have sold recently, and print out the listings showing the sale prices. Then either average them, or take the middle price. If $36 is a representative ebay price, then that's what the receipt should be, and that's what you can deduct.
If you think this isn't fair, and still think it's worth $279, then find a buyer for it at that price, and give $36 of it to the non-profit and let them buy a printer on ebay.
2007-02-26 13:53:55 · answer #1 · answered by Judy 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
use the $36 because that is your basis of the printer the cost of what you paid for the printer
2007-03-01 14:47:41 · answer #2 · answered by maria169 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's worth $36. That's all that you can document so it's all that you can deduct. Deal with it!
2007-02-26 23:12:02 · answer #3 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The receipt would be what it was purchased for, If you paid 36.00 for it, thats what the receipt should read, putting anything else but what you paid for it is fraud
You can only claim as a deduction the fair market value that the organization would be able to sell it for.
2007-02-26 21:16:20 · answer #4 · answered by Rob 7 · 1⤊ 5⤋
can't you just write it off for your out-of-pocket cost? We're looking at a low dollar expenditure here.
2007-02-26 21:06:16 · answer #5 · answered by smiling_freds_biz_info 6 · 0⤊ 6⤋