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 your 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.)