margarita girl

Any one find a food bank willing to give you a receipt? I've not had any luck. Best I've found so far is Daily Bread Food Bank will give me a receipt for the 1000+ boxes of KD and I'll hang on to my Sobeys receipts (per DaveTO's suggestion) in case I get audited by RevCan. They claim they don't even give receipts to food companies who make large donations. Only cash donations get receipts.

The good news is they will come and pick up the food. Phew.

Mavatar

For Canadian tax purposes, you need an official receipt with all the things specified in the Income Tax Act for it to be a valid donation. If they only give you a piece of paper that acknowledges that you gave them a bunch of KD, its only practical use would be for kindling.

CanadaDH

Mavatar is right. Your Sobey's receipts aren't going to do you any good if CRA investigates your claim. You will need an official donation receipt--nothing else will do.

I suppose you could always give out some KD tonight for Halloween!

xray

Considering you were not out of pocket, you should take advantage of the pickup service and just donate your KD to the food bank... no need to be too greedy !

DaveTO

Actually, MG has a legitimate case. Here is the documentation from CRA:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p1....html#P99_6372

Basically, as long as it isn't a gift of services, and it is to a registered charity, she can claim Fair Market Value for all of the boxes donated (which she has with the receipts).

jarusoba

Worst case scenario, they disallow it. You wouldn't lose out because they wouldn't punish you. You would just be out a few bucks of interest.

Ancien Maestro

Plus penalty..

I would ask the charity.. I've got receipts evidencing my purchase.. can you give me a tax receipt..

Donations in kind need proof of payment for actual value purposes.. sort of like donating a car, or shares of a company to charity..

Unconventional, but can be done if you can find a charity to remit you a tax donation receipt..

Mavatar

Umm... no... from your link...

CanadaDH

It's true that you can donate non-cash items to a charity and claim a tax credit, however, if you read carefully I suspect you will see they refer to donations of Personal Use Property and Listed Personal Property, which have specific meanings under the ITA. Now, it's been a number of years since I studied tax, but I don't believe boxes of KD from your pantry are considered PUP. Generally that refers to things like computers, cars, your old coin collection, etc, which is where the need for an appraisal of fair market value comes in. I've never heard of consumables like food being considered personal use property. But if you can get the charity to issue you an official receipt for the value of it, then you're fine.

RoninTech

There are definitely some food banks that issue tax receipts for food.

rehoult

As an update, I just called into the CRA.

They are in full agreement that donations of food are valid for deduction purposes. The following is the definition of 'Gift in Kind':

While it gives example of capital property and personal use property, those are merely examples. Food would be considered to be property other than cash. The following would be required for a receipt to be issued:

1) Qualified donee (food bank must be a registered charity)
2) Donee is willing to accept the donation
3) FMV can be readily determined.

1 and 2 are easy. For 3, the guide (P113) goes on about valuation methods but the agent made clear that for 'new' property a store issued receipt for the purchase of the property would be an entirely acceptable basis for valuation.

Charities are not required to issue receipts at all (See: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/.../rqss-eng.html), but there is nothing offside about them issuing one for the donation of food. You may wish to speak with the accounting department of the food bank in advance to discuss charity receipts. If they have questions, they should call the CRA Charity Client Assistance line at 1-800-267-2384; they are a really good at answering any and all questions from both charities and potential donors.

wwtsang

i wouldn't say it's greedy, there was the time and effort spent to drive around to buy this, even though there was no actual out of pocket cost (due to the promotion that sobey's ran), KD was still purchased and donated

for 1000+ boxes that's over $2000, the tax credit would be over $800 assuming MG already donates more than $250

that could easily translate into a decent MR

margarita girl

Wow, thanks rehoult! I have been working with Daily Bread Food Bank for the last 2 days, and they said they could pick up the KD. I offered to give them a $2000 cash donation, and sell them my KD for $1800. They would net $200 for their paperwork troubles, and 1051 boxes of KD. However, they said they could not give me a receipt!

I just got off the phone with the Markham Food Bank, and the lady I spoke to said she could give me a receipt for "property received" and the value. She said she would check with their accountant to see if they could do it my way (since I hadn't read your post at that point), so it looks like this may happen!

I owe you a few beers!

margarita girl

Just got a call back. Markham Food Bank will give me a receipt for $1978.49 (which is the value of my 1051 boxes) as long as I give them my Sobeys receipts. And they will come pick up my boxes tomorrow! ^ ^ ^

I will include a cash donation as well because they've been so helpful.

DaveTO

Glad it worked out for you