You can't donate for a tax write-off if you get it for free, because you can only write off what you paid for it (which was nothing, because it was free). If you try and claim market value that's tax fraud.

Jesus hopscotching Christ, I don't know if I'm more saddened that you feel you have the authority to make such a wrong statement, or that 4 people have upvoted.

What you paid for an item is absolutely irrelevant to it's write-off-ability. It is NOT "tax fraud" to claim fair market value for an item you donated if you got it for free. People donate stock or property that they've inherited all the time and get the write-off.

the IRS will look for receipts of the items you bought then donated, or ask you where you got them, or will simply get an ISP subpoena and look at this very post to see what's going on. In short it's not worth the time or effort for a potential tax fraud case.

We're talking about donating books to the goddamn Goodwill. Hell, they even provide an actual guide to tell you how much you can write off your donations right here: https://satruck.org/Home/DonationValueGuide

The IRS is not going to issue an ISP subpoena for somebody writing off $0.75 Tom Clancy donations. This is beyond stupid, but worse stop spreading your ignorance. What you paid for an item has NO bearing on what it's FMV is, and when the taxman asks you show them the receipt showing that you donated 100 paperbacks and 100 hardcovers, and here is the stated donation value specifically made for IRS purposes putting the low value of the paperbacks at $75 and the low value of the hardcovers at $100 for a $175 deduction in taxes.

You don't seem to understand the difference between using these to reduce your taxable profits (which you couldn't deduct them as expenses since there was no expense) and donating these in a charitable manner. It's perfectly legal to consider these personal property that you donate, in which case you deduct FMV from your overall income.