Acquiring Capital Equipment

Accept Equipment Donated to the University

1. If the donated capital assets are valued at $2,500 or more, the department should download and complete the Donated Capital Equipment Report (form UM1561) from the Administrative Forms Library, attaching a list of the donated capital asset items to be received. If any donated equipment item is valued at $5,000 or more, the donor must obtain an appraisal and complete IRS form 8283. The UM Director of Tax Management (612-624-1053) or the Controller's Office should sign off on IRS form 8283. Capital assets to be received must have either donor's appraised value or the acquisition value of the item and its approximate age.
2. Inventory Services will review the donation report and manually accession items deemed to qualify as capital equipment assets to the PS Asset Management module. Inventory Services must establish a fair market value for any capital asset item, if no appraisal exists.
3. Inventory Services will visit donee department to affix a UM inventory barcode sticker to the capitalized item(s).
4. A copy of the donation report will be forwarded to Kathryn Kelly in the Office of Development (Fax: 612-625-4305).
5. Recipient department is responsible for thanking donor with a letter of official recognition for their donation.
6. In disposing of capital asset items that have been donated to the University, a department must retain any such item for a minimum of three years from its "in service date" per the IRS.

Transfer Capital Equipment from Another Institution into Asset Management

1. The department should obtain UM 1675: Capital Equipment Assets Transferred from Another Institution Report from the Forms Library.
2. Complete form UM 1675 for equipment items received and send to Inventory Services. Attach any documentation provided by institution of origin.
3. Inventory Services will determine which donated items will be deemed capital equipment assets and will manually accession them to the PS Asset Management module's capital equipment asset records.
4. Inventory Services will mark the capitalized asset equipment items with a University asset tag barcode sticker.