[This posting was sent earlier, but was masked by
listproc verbiage. Here it is again, with the original
post first. ja]
From: "Joy Humphries" <JHumphries_at_wvutech.edu>
Our policy for accepting gifts has been very open because of limited
materials budgeting. Also, our acquisitions person is also the manager of
gift receipts and processing due to staff reductions.
The problem is that many of our donors are asking us to appraise their
donations for tax purposes. There was a very good article in Library
Journal in 1989 which spelled out the tax liability situation for
libraries. We provide a copy of this information to our donors, but they
seem to ignore it because it is 11 years old. Does anyone know a source
of updated unformation on appraisal of book donations and tax liability?
Joy D. Humphries
Reference / Tech Services Librarian
Vining Library - - WVU Tech
Montgomery, WV
=====Response====
From: Conrad Reitz, creitz_at_uwindsor.ca
I am kind of surprised at the negative attitude towards providing
income tax receipts for donations. Donations are a very useful method of
developing collections, as long as rigorous selection guidelines are
adhered to. I would assume that policies and procedures relating to income
tax receipts would depend on the specific jurisdiction.
At the University of Windsor we have a fairly detailed "Policy on
gifts" which works quite well, and I would be happy to forward it to
anyone who e-mails me directly. A number of faculty members have retired
recently, and we have been the beneficiary of some very worthwhile
material. In addition, it has been good for public relations. We have
not found this to be a particularly onerous task.
Revenue Canada has a pamphlet: "Gift in kind: Income tax financial
series" which we follow. Our policy states: "Employees of the Library may
provide valuations of less than $1,000.00 if they are knowledgeable in the
field and qualified to appraise the gift at its fair market value. The
written estimate must include a description or listing of the material."
The flaw in insisting that donors get their own appraisal of
collections is that we are not obliged to accept all titles, and we only
provide an income tax receipt for the value of titles we do accept.
Gifts worth $1000.00 to $10,000.00 need an appraisal by a qualified
third party (e.g. an antiquarian book dealer) and if the value exceeds
$10,000.00, two external appraisers are necessary. This situation has not
yet arisen, but a policy is necessary, in case someone decides to donate a
Gutenberg Bible or First Folio to our Library.
Conrad Reitz, Collections Librarian,
Leddy Library, University of Windsor
Vice President External Faculty Association
Tel. (519) 253-3000 ext. 3213 Fax. (519) 971-3668
http://www.uwindsor.ca:7000/leddy/creitz/INDEX.htm
Received on Wed Mar 29 2000 - 05:59:17 EST