In a message dated 1/18/2006 7:31:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: I can't see how they would/could be penalized. That was a valid charitable contribution for that tax year. Your organization has held that funding since then. This also is an amount of time for which their money, had it not been donated could have been earning interest or invested (and taxed). I dunno. I've always operated on the assumption that the IRS looks dimly on the return of gifts for which deductions have been taken--although I can't cite any legal language to support my view. It would be awfully easy for an unscrupulous institution to conspire with a donor to commit fraud if such returns were allowed without penalty (by penalty I mean having to pay taxes on the returned amount). Perhaps there's no problem if the donor simply declares the return as income and pays taxes on it. In previous discussions on this list about deaccessioning artifacts, I think the consensus has been that the donor is the last entity to whom you would want to send a deaccessioned object, precisely because of the tax consequences. David Haberstich ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).