How To: Determine the value of your donated equipment
1/ How To: Determine the value of your donated equipment 2/ How To: CLEAN ALL YOUR PERSONAL INFO/DATA OFF YOUR DRIVE!
1/ We advise you to consult your tax adviser (CPA, Enrolled Agent, etc.) to make sure you are doing the right thing for your tax circumstances and valuing the item in accordance with the law.
So How Do You Determine The Value Of Computer Stuff You Have To Donate??? If you are an individual looking to determine the value of your item, one way is to look in your local newspaper in the classifieds. See what computers that sound like yours are being advertised for and cut out the part of the page with the ad and the date at the top of the page.
If you are a business you may already have the item(s) “on the books”, and valued. You may prepare a letter with the inventory and value you claim, and the nonprofit can sign the letter as having received the items.
Remember, you may have an item like a ” monitor” that you get a charitable receipt for, and you may have to STILL pay a fee to cover the handling and transportation or an enviromental disposal charge, because of state laws regarding e-waste or hazardous waste.
Before you get rid of your computer, remember that computer equipment that is donated for reuse, working or nonworking, has a better chance for reuse if you leave all the parts in it.
2/ Clean Off Your Files from your hard drive! The best way to guarantee reuse of your computer/Laptop is to leave the harddrive and cables and mounting tray in the computer/Laptop AND you want to destroy all the information on your harddrive for your peace-of-mind. The way to destroy the data is to use a software utility program that OVERWRITES your data with random data [Zero’s and One’s – 0/1]. Software application programs that destroy [overwrite] your data include:
- Active@Killdisk
- DataEraser
- WipeDrive
Here are some websites from an internet search with free one-time download disc-wipe software:
- Free Secure File / Disk Deletion Utilities
- CMRR Secure Erase
You can find more by typing “data destruction software” into your internet search engine.
All trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective
companies.
Author: CRC Blog