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I am downsizing and have many 'books' how and where can I get a charitable tax receipt ?

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    What country are you in?
    – DJClayworth
    Sep 30, 2017 at 21:53

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Exact rules are going to depend on your location, but let me give you some principles.

Getting a tax receipt for anything is a matter of finding a charity who wants your books, and values them enough to give you a receipt for them. That's going to depend on the books. If they are valuable antiques then you will have no problem, but then you would also have no problem finding a dealer who would buy them from you. If you wish a charity to benefit, sell the valuable books to a dealer and give the proceeds to a charity.

If your books are just regular books, a dealer is not the place to go. However many towns do have second hand bookstores that will buy select used books. Thrift stores are almost always willing to receive used books. However except in rare cases they will not buy goods, and not issue receipts. It is usually not worth their time to make the valuation and do the paperwork, and the value of most used books is low enough that it is not worth your time either.

Certain kinds of books, like textbooks, can be donated for use overseas, and you might have more luck with organizations that want them.

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    In my area (in the U.S.), charity thrift stores will happily give you a blank receipt when you donate items, on which you write in what you donated. The thrift stores never value donated items as they come in, so it is up to the donor to assign a value for tax purposes.
    – Ben Miller
    Sep 30, 2017 at 22:13
  • In the U.K. you can give the charity shop (thrift store) your details and when the things you donated are sold they send you a letter saying how much money they sold for, and you can use that for Gift Aid (tax relief) purposes.
    – Vicky
    Oct 1, 2017 at 8:05

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