Thank you so much JHB ! I don't know what I would do without the help from you kind, generous people !

Maybe they weren't really thinking about taxes...

As far as I've found (with auctions) it is worth it to keep a lot of detail internally so that you have easy access to information to make the current event run smoothly and to use as historical info the next year.

I like to set up a spreadsheet with columns like

Item #, Item name, description, value, donor name, donor address, donor phone, PTO contact, auction price, sold to (that may not be worth tracking unless it's a big enough value you might need a receipt)

If someone gives us 3 gift certificates, they get listed as three different lines with a sequence number. (XYZ Dinner-For-Two Gift Certificate #1).

It's so easy to end up with piecemeal information EVERYWHERE. To me, it's worth have ONE person maintain a master set of information and everyone report to that one person in a consistent manner. (It's nice to have a form for them to complete and attach to each object with donor info.)

If you don't collect good info as you go along, you spend 4 times as long trying to get it retroactively. "Who got the donation from XYZ store? Was it the north or south location? What's the address for the thank you note?"

Keep all the information ONE place and use it for keeping track of items, placement in the auction, budgets, thank yous, lists of who call next year, etc.

We even merge this info into the Word template to print the bid sheets.

[ 01-14-2005, 12:59 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

Bless you JHB !! I got the impression from a few (at our school) that I had mega detailing to do !

It's been awhile since I completed a 990EZ, but if you filed one last year - the auction shouldn't affect anything (format wise).

As I recall you have three categories:
Sale of Assets (probably zero)
Special Events (most of your programs)
Sales of Inventory (like T-shirts)

You add together all your revenues for the cateory, record that, then the record expenses.

For the special events, you also attach a list. Ours was a simple list of whatever events we had that year with these columns.

Event ---- Revenue

---

Expenses ---- Net

So the auction will just get added into the special events group.

Thank you for your help ! Well it sounds like I need to understand them both. I did our taxes for last year which was the first time for our PTO. We had no auction. Now we will this year in March so I wanted to be prepared to do whatever was necessary to make tax time easier. As you can tell, I am clueless about auctions and the IRS.
Thanks again.

Can you clarify your questions a little more? Is it the income from the auction that you want to document or charitable contributions of the donors?

You'll track revenues and expenses like any other event and report it with your other programs on your 990/990EZ if you file one each year.

You'll probably want to track the items donated, by whom, the fair market value (FMV), and the sold price and buyer from the auction. (Note if items aren't being sold for more than FMV, I don't suppose it really matters who they buyer is.)

Bidders can claim anything paid more than a well-documented FMV as a donation.

Here are some IRS websites & publications that might help you.

Guide for 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations (Pub 37054E)
Charity Auctions
Charitable Organizations - Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements

[ 01-13-2005, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]