USA Non-cash donations from my business to a charity

[acfixerdude]

Pretty complex questions here... I plan on donating 5 used widget sets on behalf of my business. My cost on them is very low, I purchased in bulk and got a massive deal. I will not be receiving anything in return from the charity, but I do expect it to be a newsworthy story and will get some publicity out of it on the news. I have another 40 sets from the bulk purchase that I am selling at my retail store for $400-$650 per set depending on if we refurbish the widget set or not and include our standard warranty or sell as-is (tested and working obviously). Those are blow-out prices. If I only had a few sets to sell I'd refurb all of them and sell for $1000 a set.

Questions:
1. As a passthrough LLC, can we expense the estimated value any indirect news airtime we get or just the value of the appliances? This is the only way it would be a deductible business expense, otherwise it would be a personal write off (if I comprehended what I read correctly).

2a. My cost on each set is approximately $45 each plus the cost of labor to move them and any labor and parts my employees use to refurbish them or repair them or test them. The labor is already a business expense as are the parts I will be using. The fair market value is probably $500 each piece (they dont have to be sold as sets). As each piece is $500 or less, would the donation need to be documented on columns e, f, and g of section A part 1 form 8283? I'm donating a total value over $500, but each piece is $500 or less, please confirm whether I need to fill that part out or not.
2b. Can I claim that the fair market value is $500 vs what I'm really selling them for (at blow-out prices) or would they need to be at the cheaper price? I'll likely sell them at the $500 price tag once I start having only a few left.

3. I don't itemize my personal taxes. If the donation cannot be counted as a business expense for schedule C, does question 2 even matter? If I can't write it off, I'll hopefully still get the publicity out of it but I'd rather get the write-off perk as well.

 

[AGH the CPA]

Charitable donations can only be dedcuted at actual cost. If the widgets cost you $45 each, thats all you can deduct. I'm not sure on the labor of your employees; I know YOUR labor would not be deductible (ie you charge $100 per hour of your time - this would NOT be allowed)

Here's some info I found: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/can-you-deduct-pro-bono-services-from-your-income-taxes-3515623

and from the source: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf

 

[bklynboy]

Charitable donations can only be deducted at actual cost.

Not true in the case of public securities which are donated at MV. I seem to recall other hard assets like real estate and cars are also at Fair value and not cost. Not sure if the same is true for widgets but want to clarify that it depends on what is being donated.

 

[AGH the CPA]

Not true in the case of public securities which are donated at MV. I seem to recall other hard assets like real estate and cars are also at Fair value and not cost. Not sure if the same is true for widgets but want to clarify that it depends on what is being donated.

I was referring to the type of charitable donations the OP was referring to which was services and products from his/her company.