Digital BW, The Print

I first discovered this long ago when I contributed an entire body of
work of a Costa Rica Rain forest to the Nature Conservancy who
happened to be involved in the area.

I am told that my contributions of pieces to art auctions for
charities are only reportable to the IRS at the material cost of
production. This does not include my time of course, or any real
market value. It's only art, after all, and surely just a hobby for me.
The people who get the real tax benifit are the wealthy who made the
purchase, they can utitize the full amount of they spent at the
auction. After all, they had to get in their car and drive there and
all, dress, etc..

Welcome to America.

Make sure you are involved only because of the spirit of the thing,
that's what counts and it'll be difficult to otherwise take advantage
of your act of generosity.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "hflockwood"
<hflockwood@...> wrote:
>
> In a juried process, I was selected to exhibit my (B&W) prints at a
non-profit art center in VT 
> (Northeast Kingdom.)  The prints are archival (carbon on cotton: MIS
quadtone, HFA paper) 
> and are professionally matted and (16x20) framed.  There will be 25
prints in the month-
> long exhibit.
> 
> Since the center is in the midst of a fund raising effort, I'm
contemplating donating the entire 
> collection to their building fund, rather than trying to sell them.
 Obviously, this raises the 
> question of how to value the collection for tax purposes.
> 
> The materials cost to me of putting the collection together is about
$150 per print, with no 
> value given to my time or to the artistic value of the prints included.
> 
> So, if I am to claim a charitable deduction, how do I value the
donation?  The center has 
> agreed that $400 per print, or $10,000 for the collection, would be
easily justified.
> 
> I'm looking for guidance from others who may have faced a similar
situation.
> 
> TIA.
> 
> Harry
>