How to Determine the Fair Market Value of Computer Equipment

If you have some computer equipment that you want to donate to a charity or non-profit organization, you may be interested in claiming a deduction on your taxes for the donation. The amount that you claim is the fair market value of the equipment, which is different from the price you paid for it. According to the IRS, fair market value is the price that the computer equipment would sell for in a normal market, which is when neither the buyer nor seller is desperate for the item.

Look up your computer equipment on the Used Price website (see Resources). It is an online blue book for equipment that will give you an idea of the computer value.

See what similar computer equipment is selling for on the Used Computer Mall website and eBay (see Resources). This will show you how sellers are pricing the equipment. If you look at recently completed auctions on eBay, you can even seen what buyers have been paying for the equipment.

Take all of the values, add them together, and then divide that number by the total number of values. The result is the average value, which is a good indicator for the fair market value of the equipment.