My mother-in-law passed away recently, and we are donating many of her things. One item I'm not sure how to handle: a very expensive medication ("street" price > $10,000 for the bottle). The catch is that this medication was granted to her for free from the manufacturer because she was on social security disability and had extremely limited income.
I understand the complications regarding documenting the donation, appraisal, (form 8283) etc., but because there was not a cost to obtain the item, can we even claim the actual value of the item as a donation? I also realize there may be a separate issue of whether this item is ours (or when will it become ours) to donate, but if the zero cost basis is a deal breaker, I won't even try to claim it.
