How should I value personal use television for donation?
IRS Pub 561 says you have to use fair market value.  You cannot simply use a depreciated value. You should attempt to determine what people normally pay for comparable items, and be prepared to defend your determination with evidence in the event of an audit. The usual lazy recommendation: See what similar objects, in similar condition, of similar age, have sold for recently on eBay. That establishes a fair market value by directly polling the market. Is it a tube television, digital, analog, what?  Tube televisions are no longer made in (or imported to) the U.S., and if it's an analog set then it would require a digital converter just for anyone to use it for watching broadcast signals, since analog television signals are gone and have been replaced by DTV.  That makes all the difference in the world as far as valuation.  If it doesn't have resale value to begin with then I doubt you can put a real value on it for donation purposes. I used TurboTax last year. It had a section for donations where it figured out the amounts of the IRS approved values for a donation.  You would need to know the size of the television and the current condition it is in.  He's a screenshot - though it's not from the TV section.  https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Taxes-101/Video--How-to-Estimate-the-Value-of-Clothing-for-IRS-Deductions/INF13870.html+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us TurboTax offers a free online tool called ItsDeductible that does the same thing (though I haven't tried it). Unfortunately, I don't have the current one with TV's to give you the range of amounts that apply to yours. --I am not affiliated with TurboTax and did not receive it for free for a review.
No, it doesn't work like this. Your charitable contribution is limited to the FMV. In your scenario your charitable contribution is limited by the FMV, i.e.: you can only deduct the worth of the stocks. It would be to your advantage to sell the stocks and donate cash. Had your stock appreciated, you may be required to either deduct the appreciation amount from the donation deduction or pay capital gains tax (increasing your basis to the FMV), depending on the nature of your donation. In many cases - you may be able to deduct the whole value of the appreciated stock without paying capital gains. Read the link below for more details and exceptions. In this scenario, it is probably more beneficial to donate the stock (even if required to pay the capital gains tax), instead of selling and donating cash (which will always trigger the capital gains tax). Exceptions.   However, in certain situations, you must reduce the fair   market value by any amount that would have been long-term capital gain   if you had sold the property for its fair market value. Generally,   this means reducing the fair market value to the property's cost or   other basis. You must do this if: The property (other than qualified appreciated stock) is contributed to certain private nonoperating foundations, You choose the 50% limit instead of the special 30% limit for capital gain property, discussed later, The contributed property is intellectual property (as defined earlier under Patents and Other Intellectual Property ), The contributed property is certain taxidermy property as explained earlier, or The contributed property is tangible personal property (defined earlier) that: Is put to an unrelated use (defined later) by the charity, or Has a claimed value of more than $5,000 and is sold, traded, or otherwise disposed of by the qualified organization during the year   in which you made the contribution, and the qualified organization has   not made the required certification of exempt use (such as on Form   8282, Donee Information Return, Part IV). See also Recapture if no   exempt use , later. See more here. "Is this legal? Why not? But you might have trouble deducting losses on your taxes, especially if you sell to someone related to you in some way (which is indeed what you're doing). See the added portion below regarding dealing with ""related person"" (which a sibling is). The state of Maryland has a transfer/recordation tax of 1.5% for each, the buyer and seller. Would this be computed on the appraised or sale value? You should check with the State. In California property taxes are assessed based on sale value, but if the sale value is bogus the assessors have the right to recalculate. Since you're selling to family, the assessors will likely to intervene and set a more close to ""fair market"" value on the transaction, but again - check the local law. Will this pose any problem if the buyer needs financing? Likely, banks will be suspicious.Since you're giving a discount to your sibling, it will likely not cause a problem for financing. If it was an unrelated person getting such a discount, it would likely to have raised some questions. Would I be able to deduct a capital loss on my tax return? As I said - it may be a problem. If the transaction is between related people - likely not. Otherwise - not sure. Check with a professional tax adviser (EA or CPA licensed in Maryland). You mentioned in the comment that the buyer is a sibling. IRS Publication 544 has a list of what is considered ""related person"", and that includes siblings. So the short answer is NO, you will not be able to deduct the loss. The tax treatment is not trivial in this case, and I suggest to have a professional tax adviser guide you on how to proceed. Here's the definition of ""related person"" from the IRS pub. 544: Members of a family, including only brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, spouse, ancestors (parents, grandparents,   etc.), and lineal descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.). An individual and a corporation if the individual directly or indirectly owns more than 50% in value of the outstanding stock of the   corporation. Two corporations that are members of the same controlled group as defined in section 267(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. A trust fiduciary and a corporation if the trust or the grantor of the trust directly or indirectly owns more than 50% in value of the   outstanding stock of the corporation. A grantor and fiduciary, and the fiduciary and beneficiary, of any trust. Fiduciaries of two different trusts, and the fiduciary and beneficiary of two different trusts, if the same person is the grantor   of both trusts. A tax-exempt educational or charitable organization and a person who directly or indirectly controls the organization, or a member of   that person's family. A corporation and a partnership if the same persons own more than 50% in value of the outstanding stock of the corporation and more than   50% of the capital interest or profits interest in the partnership. Two S corporations if the same persons own more than 50% in value of the outstanding stock of each corporation. Two corporations, one of which is an S corporation, if the same persons own more than 50% in value of the outstanding stock of each   corporation. An executor and a beneficiary of an estate unless the sale or exchange is in satisfaction of a pecuniary bequest. Two partnerships if the same persons directly or indirectly own more than 50% of the capital interests or profits interests in both   partnerships. A person and a partnership if the person directly or indirectly owns more than 50% of the capital interest or profits interest in the   partnership." I see two ways you can handle this. Use the gifts for the purpose of creating more free software.  This is fundraising, and your cause is writing free software.  The language is a little tricky from the PayPal Donate button (emphasis mine): This button is intended for fundraising. If you are not raising money   for a cause, please choose another option. Nonprofits must verify   their status to withdraw donations they receive. Users that are not   verified nonprofits must demonstrate how their donations will be used,   once they raise more than $10,000 USD. You don't have to be a nonprofit; they are only requiring existing nonprofits to verify their status.  You don't even have to account for the donations if they are below $10,000. Give out your PayPal email address and instruct the gift-givers to simply send you money through their PayPal interface.  They can mark it as a gift when they send the money. I think option one is how the various bloggers and other personal users are justifiying their collection of donations, and I think its a valid use of the PayPal Donate button. In the United States investing towards donation is a great idea because you can donate appreciated securities directly rather than donating cash.  Notice how much this can benefit you: So you get to both (a) donate untaxed money and then (b) deduct that unrealized money from your income total on your tax return. With the above in mind, a good strategy for investing towards this type of donation would be to pick securities that are likely to increase in market value but not likely to produce any other sort of income.  So bonds (which produce lots of interest income), or stocks with dividends, or equity mutual funds (which distribute dividends as capital gains) would all be suboptimal for this purpose. Of course, an even better strategy would be to establish a widely diversified investment portfolio without thought to future donations.  Then, once a year (or whenever), evaluate all your investments and find some where the market value has increased.  Then donate some of those shares.  No special advance planning necessary. Note that your tax consequences could be more complicated depending on your exact situation.  Read the section about Capital Gain Property in IRS Pub. 26 for all the details.  There may be special limits on the amount you can deduct.  Also, donations of short term capital gains are treated much less favorably, so make sure you donate only long term capital gain property. Pulling money out of a credit card is generally a bad idea.  You'll be hit with interest from day 1, and some credit cards have cash advance fees on top of that. If you are really desperate for running up an automatic charge on your credit card to maintain use, then you have a few options: Personally, the charity route makes the most sense to me.  You can probably set up an automatic donation of less than 5 quid, and it may be tax deductible to boot.  Plus, you're helping an organization that (hopefully) is doing some good in the world. First, the single worst reason to do anything is because most people are doing it. The second worst thing is to take tax advice from a non-tax pro. (Ironic, I understand, but read on) Run through your 2015 tax return. Do you itemize already? If not, there's a reason, the standard deduction for a couple is $12,600 in 2016, so a renter isn't likely to have enough deductions to itemize, even with a high state tax.  For 2016, project your total interest from the mortgage, and the year's property tax, then add your state income tax, and last, any charitable donations. This total comprises the bulk of what people take on their Schedule A. Now, since your current withholding assumes the standard $12,600, subtract this number, and you're left with the amount your taxable income will be reduced for the fact that you have the house. Last, divide this number by $4000. The result is how many more withholding allowances you can claim. One personal exemption (a withholding allowance) is exactly $4050 this year.  For what its worth, median home price for early 2016 was $190K. After 20% down, a $152K mortgage would cost about $6000 in interest the first year, and maybe $3000 in property tax. The average couple, making $60,000 or so won't have a state bill much over $3000, so shy of some nice donations, it's easy to have a house, yet still not itemize.  Of course, if you have higher income and a more expensive home, the numbers will be different.  The best you can do is to get tax software or use an online service and estimate the 2016 return based on your numbers. If you wish to post numbers via an edit to your question, I'm happy to update my answer a bit to your situation.  Note - the form you'll use to adjust withholdings, the W4, offers a worksheet to perform the calculation.  It asks in line 1 for your total itemized deductions, then subtract the standard deduction, then divide by $4050. Pretty much what I suggested above. In the United States investing towards donation is a great idea because you can donate appreciated securities directly rather than donating cash.  Notice how much this can benefit you: So you get to both (a) donate untaxed money and then (b) deduct that unrealized money from your income total on your tax return. With the above in mind, a good strategy for investing towards this type of donation would be to pick securities that are likely to increase in market value but not likely to produce any other sort of income.  So bonds (which produce lots of interest income), or stocks with dividends, or equity mutual funds (which distribute dividends as capital gains) would all be suboptimal for this purpose. Of course, an even better strategy would be to establish a widely diversified investment portfolio without thought to future donations.  Then, once a year (or whenever), evaluate all your investments and find some where the market value has increased.  Then donate some of those shares.  No special advance planning necessary. Note that your tax consequences could be more complicated depending on your exact situation.  Read the section about Capital Gain Property in IRS Pub. 26 for all the details.  There may be special limits on the amount you can deduct.  Also, donations of short term capital gains are treated much less favorably, so make sure you donate only long term capital gain property. If you personally make any money from it then you need a Series 65, or a Series 63 license. It is a private industry/SEC regulation. The license itself basically spells out your duties and ethical standards for you.