Commonly Donated Items

• Items donated to a silent auction typically come from a variety of local businesses. Examples of items that may be donated include electronics, gift certificates for area businesses, hotel and other travel vouchers, gift baskets, attraction tickets, jewelry and other products. If the charity has access to celebrities, it is not uncommon to see autographed items featured in a silent auction.
  
  

Services As Donations

• Local professionals may also donate services to a silent auction. Examples of such a donation include a few hours of tutoring, house cleaning service or a CPA offering a few hours of support with your tax return. Unfortunately for the donor, the Internal Revenue Service does not consider services a tax deductible item. This applies regardless of the charity donated to or the service offered.
  
  

Charitable Deduction Limit

• As a donor, you are limited in the amount you can claim for your charitable contribution to the silent auction. While charitable contributions are typically claimed as fair market value, silent auction donations cannot be claimed as FMV. Instead, donors can only claim the cost originally paid to purchase the item. For example, if you buy 12 computers for $1,500 each to sell in your business at $2,000 each, you can only claim $1,500.
  
  

Tax Obligation

• When you donate to a silent auction, you should receive a receipt from the charitable organization. Typically the receipt will include a list of what was donated, the date and the name of the charitable organization. The value amount field is left blank for you to fill in. You must keep this as it is your tax receipt, which you need to claim the donation on your taxes. You do not have to send in the receipt with your tax form, but you must keep it in the event of an audit. If you file your own taxes using tax software, you will be asked if you have any charitable donations, which is when you enter your donation. If you are filing using the paper form, you must use form 1040 and you must itemize your deductions. The charitable donation is to be listed on Schedule A.