It has always been my understanding that a museum or 501c3 non-profit is not allowed to declare monetary values for the IRS declarations - that is the reponsibilty of the donor to do or to engage a qualified third party such as an appraiser to do. Cheers! Dave David Havey Senior Conservator & Museum Consultant Los Angeles CA On Oct 4, 2012 1:13 PM, "Mifflinburg Buggy Museum" < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > ** > I could not find anything on this specific topic in the archives. We have > been given a number of items: photographs, books, ledgers, letters, tax > receipts, checks, bank books by the descendents of our buggy maker. While > we can easily put a value on the books, I have never attempted to value > correspondence. We have used outside appraisers for some of our collection > - vehicles, stoves, etc, but that was for insurance purposes and this is > more for tax purposes. While we do not normally do this for donors, we > felt since this was the descendents and it is actually a gift from the > grandson's estate, we could/should do this or at least attempt to do this. > Although it may turn out to be a pointless exercise if their attorney says > it doesn't matter. Can anyone offer advice? Where do you go to appraise > letters, ledgers and bank records? I'm pretty sure that IRS forms do not > allow you to value you something as "priceless". Thank you in advance for > any assistance, > > Bronwen A. Sanders > Executive Director > Mifflinburg Buggy Museum > 570-966-1355 > www.buggymuseum.org > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 > ========================================================= 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).