The Tax Court disallowed charitable deductions for clothing valued at $9,500 by the taxpayers because they did not obtain qualified appraisals for the contributed property. The taxpayer said that while they could not definitively identify the various persons whose initials appeared on the appraisals submitted as evidence, they assumed the appraisers were volunteer employees of the thrift shop. The court said that the regulations preclude the charity or an employee of the charity from serving as a qualified appraiser.

See Haskett v. Comm’r, T.C. Summary 2013-76 (9/26/13)