Charitable contributions to troop?

[Quailman]

My troop is having a garage sale fundraiser in a couple of weeks. Yesterday I received a troop e-mail with an attachment that's a receipt to give donors for their records. It says
"Tax Deductible Donation"
"Received from ________________"
"Merchandise with a fair market value of ______________"
"Donated to Troop XX, Boy Scouts of America, a non-profit organization. No goods or services were exchanged for this donation."

It has a place for a troop representative to sign and print his name. There are no instructions for keeping a log of who these were issued to, and no troop contact information. These last two points are flaws that are rendered moot by the fact that our troop is part of the CO, which is not mentioned on the form. I recommended to the CC that these not be used. Am I out of line?

What would it take in order to be able to issue receipts for donated goods? Wouldn't they have to include the CO name and address?

[Nuts4Scouts]

While the BSA might be a non-profit organization, the BSA is not your Troop.

Your Troop is owned by your charter organization, and takes it's tax status from them, not the BSA.

If your CO is a 501(c)(3) organization, and agrees to this, your receipt can state that the items were donated to your Charter Organization.

How are you planning on coming up with a "fair market value" for a garage sale item? These are used items, in questionable shape.

[Quailman]

The standard practice for merchandise donations is to just sign the receipt and leave the valuation up to the donor. There's a place on the charitable contribution IRS form to indicate how the value was determined.

[smtroop168]

Have you filled out the BSA fundraising form and had it approved by your Council? They should be able to answer your questions.