Personal contribution of food

I need some help. (Yeah, I know; that's not what I mean).

My facts involve small amounts but the principles are what I'm trying to figure out, so please pretend the amounts are large enough to bother with. Also, assume:
Taxpayer itemizes every year.
Items contributed are healthy, edible, and have expiration dates of 6 months or so beyond the date of gift.
Donee is a food bank for helping needy people, and is a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Taxpayer has a cupboard with 20 identical cans of tuna fish. He bought 10 of them on a big sale over a year ago at $1.00 per can. Taxpayer just bought the other 10 cans, and what with inflation, supply chain shortages and the like, he paid $3.00 per can. When he put them in the cupboard, he realized that he did not need so many cans of tuna. So the very next day, he grabbed the 10 older cans and dropped them off at the food bank, which gratefully gave him a receipt.

How much is his contribution deduction, and how do you determine it?

I"ll bite!
Since you clearly say he donated the older cans...his donation is the lower of cost or market and therefore $10.00
Now, how wrong am I?

My response is the same: Lower of cost or market; in this case $10. I hope that we are not going to say that this is a donation of appreciated property and take a donation of $30

What is the donor's accounting method for tracking the cost of his tuna? LIFO, FIFO, average, specific ID?
Does he have books and records to support the the method he's using to value the donation?
How did he determine FMV on tuna a heartbeat away from the pull date?
Maybe FMV doesn't matter since food inventory has different contribution rules.
Is the donor an individual? An entity?

Since you clearly say he donated the older cans...his donation is the lower of cost or market and therefore $10.00. Where does that rule appear?

I hope that we are not going to say that this is a donation of appreciated property and take a donation of $30 . What prohibits that?

What is the donor's accounting method for tracking the cost of his tuna? LIFO, FIFO, average, specific ID?. He has no method for that. I don't think he's required to. After all, it's just personal food that he keeps in his kitchen, not inventory.

Does he have books and records to support the the method he's using to value the donation?. Absolutely not. Just the recent cash register receipt, if we're lucky.

How did he determine FMV on tuna a heartbeat away from the pull date?. It's a bit more than a heartbeat. Plus some food items have longer expiration dates. Assume this is one of those.

Maybe FMV doesn't matter since food inventory has different contribution rules.. What different rules? This is not inventory and he is not a business.

Is the donor an individual?. An individual human being, not even a disregarded entity, let alone a corporation.

For individual donating food to a food bank, use cost.

You cannot use the FMV unless it is capital gain property.

Since it is not used in a trade or business, it's not inventory so there is no inventory tracking or inventory rules applied. It is specific to those cans donated.

See section 170

You cannot use the FMV unless it is capital gain prop. True that. It is a capital asset. Held over a year.

You cannot use the FMV unless it is capital gain prop. True that. It is a capital asset. Held over a year.

Lol, okay. But it has to be a long-term capital "gain" asset. I suppose if those bargain cans of tuna somehow appreciated in value then you could use FMV.

OK, so now let's modify thefacts. He grabbed a random assortment of 10 cans and donated the, He paid no attention to which one cost him $1 and which cost $3 per can. And by the time he prepares his return for the year of donation, he has long since eaten the remaining 10 cans. So, is his deduction still the FMV of the capital gain property?

If the value of the cans is less than the $500 reporting threshold then I guess you're making a guess. If it's above that then you're supposed to be able to document the specific assets donated with date of acquisition, basis, description, etc.

Good points. But seems reasonable to me that, since all the cans are worth $3 each at time of contribution, and none cost less than $1 or more than $3, he's still good at the $3 FMV deduction. The info you mention won't matter, i.e., is not like the contemporaneous documentation rule, violation of which can cause the loss of the deduction.

Did the tax savings equate to the cost of the earlier tuna cans?

Probably not. Why does it matter? It's not a tax planning technique. It's just a technical tax question for a guy who bought too much tuna and gave some to a food bank.

Just wondering if the tax savings were…worth it