Donating Old PCs?

[derspiess]

Since we're in the holiday season, my mind has naturally turned to: buying new stuff & finding last-minute tax write-offs.

Since I'm replacing my home theater PC, I will have that to spare, as well as another "secondary" PC that is still useable for the basic stuff.  I'll also have another one to get rid of early next year, hopefully.


I'm aware of the basic stuff for donating PCs-- making sure everything's working, wipe the hard drive as close to DoD specs as possible, include accessories, etc. but a few things aren't clear in my mind:

*Where's the best place to donate?  I have a feeling my local schools already have more up-to-date PCs than what I have.

*My PCs are custom builds, rather than Dell, HP, etc.  Will organizations typically accept PCs that don't have a brand logo?

*From what I read, the donor sets the $ value of the PC donated, for tax purposes.  Are there any guidelines (official IRS or otherwise) that spell out what is a fair value?

Information is out there but it seems scattered & somewhat contradictory.  Hopefully some of you in the US have donated PCs before & can give me some insight.

[Caliga]

The donor does set the value but the org has to acknowledge it (and can be held responsible if it facilitates you committing tax fraud) and can ask you to provide an independent appraisal of the item's FMV.  If the item is over $5,000 in value you *must* by law provide an independent appraisal.  Actually the $5K appraisal threshold might have been changed (lowered) in the past couple of years... I forget.

[Ed Anger]

Try the local churches. Especially if they have an after-school program.

[derspiess]

Try the local churches. Especially if they have an after-school program.

Might give that a shot, though I'm not giving to any Papist churches

My church would probably laugh at me & then show off some $2000 gaming rig they bought for the youth group.

[Ed Anger]

Try the local churches. Especially if they have an after-school program.

Might give that a shot, though I'm not giving to any Papist churches

My church would probably laugh at me & then show off some $2000 gaming rig they bought for the youth group.

They have iSaviour.

[Josquius]

I say give it to a homeless shelter.

[MadImmortalMan]

We've got a store here that takes donations like that and does refurbs. They act as a broker for charities and can find a recipient for you. You might have a thing like that around. It seems to be the best option for one-offs or home users who want to donate. For large batches of stuff or companies there are asset management companies that do it.

[derspiess]

We've got a store here that takes donations like that and does refurbs. They act as a broker for charities and can find a recipient for you. You might have a thing like that around. It seems to be the best option for one-offs or home users who want to donate. For large batches of stuff or companies there are asset management companies that do it.

Yeah, there's a co-op here in Cincy that does that.  Sounds like a lot of schools & other non-profits refer you to them when you ask about donating.  Will probably go that route, since they will recycle old motherboards, memory, processors, etc.