Closing a business, sell or donate inventory

[huneycutts]

My wife sells clothing out of the house and she is getting out of the business.  It is a sole proprietorship and she has about 8,000 dollars retail value of inventory.  What would be the best way to go about closing the business down.  Should we close it this year and donate all of the inventory or keep the business open in 2019 and try to keep selling off inventory.

[Carl]

With that much inventory I would recommend staying open and having a "going out of business" sale. If you can sell the inventory at cost, then at least you won't lose money on that inventory. With Christmas so close, depending on the inventory you may be able to get it to fly off the shelves before the end of the year, if the price is right for that.

Otherwise, another option is to show remaining inventory as "removed for personal use" so you can get the EOY inventory balance to zero and file that "final" SCH C as a part of your 2018 personal return. Then if you donate it before the end of the year you can claim the donation under the charitable contributions section under the Deductions & Credits tab.

For clothing, you should have no problem donating it this time of year. I would suggest you donate it to a local shelter that is registered as a qualified charitable organization so you can get the 50% deduction. If it's children's clothing, then I suggest a shelter for battered women.

[pailen]

In order to take the inventory donation does all of the inventory have to be disposed of prior to the end of the year.  I am closing a book selling business and may not be able to eliminate all inventory before the end of 2019.