A few years ago, my elderly father donated what he considered to be the most valuable material asset in his possession to a university library. It has fallen upon me to prepare several years of unfiled tax returns for him. I would like to include the book donation, as a charitable contribution, for the year that it occurred. For that purpose, I believe I would need an approximate value for the book. Searching online, I cannot find any information on an approximate market value for a first edition of this book, in relatively good condition (my father kept the volume carefully wrapped during the decades that it was in his possession). Would anyone have a suggestion as to how I might go about obtaining a ballpark estimate?
Thank you so much for this very helpful link! Could you please help me figure something out: There is a line at the top that reads, "Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 GBP LOT SOLD 30,000 GBP" I presume that GBP refers to the currency, British pounds. Maybe "estimate" refers to the estimated value before the item was sold? What I don't understand is whether "lot sold" refers to the final selling price of the item or the entire lot, of which the item was a part.
Looks to me like that was Lot 147 and was the entire lot. (Auctions call even single items sold separately "lots.") And pre-auction estimate range is the first part. The second part is what it sold for -- yes, British pounds. Date sold: 20 May 2014.
Sotheby's estimated in advance that the lot would sell for approx. 8,000 - 12,000 pounds. It actually sold for 30,000 pounds. The 2 things to know about that figure is that it probably includes the buyer's premium, a percentage the buyer had to pay the auction house on top of the 'hammer price', the amount the auctioneer announced right before declaring the lot sold & bringing the gavel down to end that sale. However, since the buyer was willing to pay another 25-30% on top of the hammer price, you can consider 30,000 approx. the amount paid for your purposes. The other thing to know is that houses may underestimate realized prices, just so they can point to the remarkable results they have achieved with previous lots when trying to sell their services to future potential consignors. If a comparable set had not been at auction for a while, they had only what they knew of the history of this one to go by, so they were really just guessing.
Maybe you should contact the university to see if they have documentation of the donation. They may have valued it at the time.
Yes, thank you: I will be doing that. I wanted to get some outside information first, as a check against what the university might tell me.
I'm sorry to hear you've got this difficult task. Doing your own tax returns is bad enough, but straightening out someone else's unfiled returns for several years is quite an ordeal. US taxes, right? Assuming so, it behooves you to scrutinize the IRS's rules and requirements on the valuation of "other than cash" charitable donations. Any individual item valued at over $5000 will be required to be supported by much more documentation than a cash donation.
You say "a few years ago". Perhaps the Sotheby's result will have some validity, but the taxman will only be interested in the value at the time the donation was made, and probably its value according to the opinion of the University. Still, it will be useful to have a demonstrable value, from the period in question, close to hand.
Non-profit organizations are not required to place a monetary value on in-kind contributions but the IRS would certainly be likely to want to see some acknowledgment of receipt describing the books in enough detail to satisfy them that what was donated is essentially the same as the set in auctions. The Sotheby's result was much higher than Christie's got for a first edition in 2012. Condition/presence of any repairs or restoration and provenance can make a big difference in what buyers are willing to pay. The Sotheby's set had the more interesting history of ownership. It would be interesting to know if your father's set had any marginalia. Some annotated copies seem to be quite interesting. Hope you will be getting some professional guidance in preparing returns.
It appears that in 1920 a 1550 set auctioned for much less than a couple of sets that were no more than vintage at the time.
Thank you so much -- to everyone -- for all the additional, valuable insight! Yes, I will definitely be having a CPA prepare all the returns. I'm not up to doing that myself. I now believe the donation was made in 2016, so the Sotheby's comp should be applicable and I will definitely request that the library give us a letter relating to the condition of the book. I suspect there will be a limit on how much can be deducted for a charitable contribution but perhaps it can be spread out over more than one year. Certainly the accountant will be capable of addressing that. And, in any event, something will be better than nothing, as I would like to mitigate as much as possible the penalties and interest for non-filing. My father has always been very responsible about obligations but in his later years, he just couldn't keep up with everything and was too proud to ask for help.
