Charitable deduction of books to Goodwill and Form 8282

[edandrews1121]

I have given a collection of new books valued at more than $5,000 to Goodwill.  Goodwill is refusing to sign IRS Form 8283 that verifies my gift to it because it says by doing so it will be required to complete IRS Form 8282.  Form 8282 requires Gookwill to identify the buyer of any part of the gift, in this case books, if the the book collection or any part of the collection is sold within three years of the donation.  Goodwill is unwilling to complete Form 8282 because it will be impractical to track the sale of individual books from its stores.

Does the IRS really expect a donee, such as Goodwill, to track the sale of individual books that formed part of a collection gifted to it? This seems too burdensome.  

[npierson7]

Usually Goodwill or other thrift stores don't sign the IRS form, but give you their receipt. You need your (donor's) value, thrift store value, date of the donation to complete the form. You don't need to track the sale the books, it's irrelevant for tax purposes. 

[Opus 17]

Unfortunately, this is in fact the law when you donate a single item or group of similar items with a value of more than $5000. You not only must have goodwill sign the form 8283, but you must also have a signed appraisal, and the appraiser must also sign form 8283.

You will have to claim a donation value of $4999 or less in order to remove the requirement to get the signature.  This is why large donations must be discussed with the recipient in advance to make sure that they are willing to accept the donation and provide proper documentation as to its value.

[SweetieJean]

Right.  The IRS requires a signed appraisal from a "qualified appraiser," which Goodwill is not.

[fanfare]

books off your shelf are not worth $3,000 even if you didn't riffle once through them.

If you have valuable rare books, sell them to a book dealer and donate cash to your charity.