In-Kind (Non-Cash) Donations

Donations to the American Topical Association are a great way to support the hobby and the Association. In some situations, collectors decide they need to dispose of all or part of their collection. Other times, collecting interests have changed, a spouse may be demanding return of one (or more) rooms in your home, or your heirs have no interest in the hobby. In all of these situations, you want to make sure that your collection is valued and enjoyed by others.

Donations of stamps, postal history, philatelic literature, and collecting supplies are related to the purpose of the ATA as a tax-exempt organizations. This means you donation may be deducted at their fair market value. Gifts-in-kind that are unrelated to our mission may also be donated but for tax purposes must be valued at your costs.

Mint & Used Worldwide Stamps

ATA, through A Taste of Topicals, uses donations of off-paper topical stamps with beginning collectors, Scouts and other youth. Please sort your donation by topic and put each topic in a labeled glassine envelope.

Please call the ATA office before sending your contribution, as we may have you mail your donation to the volunteer coordinator of Taste of Topicals.

Unused Postage

ATA happily receives many "leftovers" of unused postage from collectors of US stamps. Any denomination or mixture of denominations is welcome, especially higher value (20c or higher and forever stamps) as real stamps are used on all of our outgoing mail.

Collectors sometimes purchase entire sheets or panes of stamps from the USPS just to get a single or a plate block. When you give leftover unused stamps to ATA, you receive a charitable donation letter acknowledging the face amount of your gift! Send mint postage directly to ATA at P.O. Box 2143, Greer, SC 29652-2143.

Stamp Collections

ATA welcomes donations of stamp collections. Sometimes stamps or a collection in albums can be resold for the benefit of ATA. Stamps might be used in Taste of Topicals to attract youths and other beginners to philately. We are not able to accept books, catalogs, or unsorted bulk accumulations.

Contact the ATA Office to discuss plans to donate your collection, as we will likely have you send it directly to the volunteer handling those donations.

Please include your name and mailing address so we can provide proper acknowledgment. Our written acknowledgment will include a brief description of the items received. You do not have to provide a complete inventory, but if you do we will compare the inventory to the material received, date stamp your inventory, and return it with the written acknowledgment. Please allow 30 days for our written acknowledgment.

Benefits

In addition to a tax deduction, donating philatelic material may help you save on capital gains taxes. A donation of all or part of your philatelic property may save non-philatelic heirs the hassle of disposing of your collection as well as possibly reduce estate taxes.

Valuation

For mint postage donations, we will provide a letter of acknowledgment listing the face value of the unused stamps. While we provide written acknowledgment of other in-kind donations, we may not value the gift. When the total claimed value of all philatelic related in-kind gifts is $5,000 or less during a tax year, the IRS permits the donor to use their guidelines to determine the valuation. Most donors use catalog value as the basis.

To claim more than $5,000, the IRS requires an independent and qualified appraisal. Some ATA-member dealers perform philatelic appraisals. The cost of the appraisal is also tax deductible. Please contact the office prior to making an in-kind donation that you expect to be of greater than $5000 in value.

Tax Forms

When $500 or more is claimed IRS Form 8283 will need to be completed (instructions available). This page (click here) contains relevant IRS information and up-to-date links.