According to the IRS, "property is considered a capital gain property if the sale of it is at fair market value on the date of the contribution that would have resulted in long-term capital gain. Capital gain property includes capital assets that are held for more than 1 year."
What is considered a Capital Asset?
Capital assets include most items of property that you own and use for personal purposes or for investment purposes. Some examples of capital assets are:
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Jewelry
- Coin/stamp collections
- Cars or furniture used for personal purposes.
For the purpose of figuring a charitable contribution, capital assets also include certain real property and depreciable property used in your trade or business and, generally, held more than 1 year. (You may have to treat this property as partly ordinary income property and partly capital gain property.)