[GNC] Non-cash charity contributions

[Adrien Monteleone]

If I understand it correctly, such donations are direct reductions of taxable income, thus I’d set up a contra-income account for the other half of the transaction.

But by all means, speak to a local CPA about how best to handle this.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Nov 24, 2019 w48d328, at 11:58 AM, Art Chimes <artsonline at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In the US at least, many donations of stuff — other than money — to
> charities is tax-deductible. This includes furniture to the Salvation Army,
> canned goods to a food pantry, books to your public library's annual sale,
> plumbing supplies to Habitat for Humanity, etc.
> 
> There are various limitations, but let's assume we're talking about
> qualified donations.
> 
> My question is, how best to record these in Gnucash.
> 
> I have an expense account called "charity:non-cash contributions" where I
> record these (potentally tax-deductible) donations, but I don't know how
> best to record the other side of the transaction.
> 
> As a placeholder, I am using "Orphan-USD" as the source. Is there a better
> way.
> 
> Note:  I do not want to be tracking the purchase cost of every item I
> donate, and don't want to muck about in the pond of depreciation either.
> But I can't imagine I'm the only person who has wondered about this.
> 
> Thanks,
> Art