Charity

[DeeLiz]

I am a composer, an LLC, and I gave music (some songs) to a charitable organization so they could use them in a documentary. Can I deduct what would be the normal cost of the songs in my business taxes?

[Bsch4477]

No, since the music didn’t cost you anything. Labor can’t be a deduction. 

[Opus 17]

You can never take a deduction for the value of your own time or labor.

Alternatively, you could take a deduction for the "cost" of the music, but only if you also reported the same amount of taxable income and paid tax on it.  This is rarely a good idea because it's a wash at best, or you lose on the self-employment tax at worst.  

See IRS Publication 526, page 11.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf

The value of a donation of intellectual property is your basis in the property.  If you created this yourself, you don't have a basis.

[rjs]

In addition to what the others have said, there is another reason that you cannot claim a deduction for a charitable contribution. You cannot claim a deduction unless you gave the organization full ownership of the music. There is no deduction for contributing the use of something that you still own. You would have to give the church all of your rights to the music (i.e. the copyright). Even so, for music that you wrote yourself you still have no deduction because your basis (your cost) is zero.