Taxpayers Scurry to Beat Deadline on Donated Items : Deductions: Charity centers in the Valley have received everything from black suede boots to a bone-healing machine.

‘Tis the season for giving. And for deducting.

Scores of people dropped off used clothes, old appliances and other goods to Salvation Army and Goodwill centers in the San Fernando Valley on Thursday--the last day they could make charitable donations and still deduct them from 1992 tax returns.

“Usually, the last week of December, there will be that last-minute rush, kind of like taxes on April 15,” said Maj. Don Mowery of the Salvation Army. “People want that year-end tax deduction.”

Mowery said that many areas in Southern California had not experienced the normal deluge, a possible result of people making donations earlier this year to victims of hurricanes in Florida and Hawaii. But donations to Salvation Army centers in the Valley doubled in the last week of the year, officials said.

“They’re starting to come in--10, 12, 15 cars at a time,” said Dan Holtry, director of operations for the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Van Nuys, which covers the Santa Clarita, Antelope and eastern San Fernando valleys.

People dropped off black suede boots, Nike tennis shoes, a macrame purse and a 50-year-old beach umbrella to the Van Nuys center Wednesday, along with six recliners, 10 couches, nine refrigerators, three stoves and a roll-away bed. A bone-healing machine, dust ruffle and mink coat were added to the growing stack by early Thursday morning.

But much more was expected. Indeed, the Van Nuys center planned to stay open until midnight to catch all the last-minute gift givers.

Goodwill Industries also extended its hours Thursday and assigned additional employees to work at drop-off sites, said Chester Ingram, director for the Valley. He said that donations had increased by 25% and attributed the surge to preparations for tax time.

Taxpayers who itemize their deductions find it beneficial to make charitable contributions, said Keith Kimball, spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service. They can subtract either the fair market value of the item or the amount they paid, whichever is lower, from their adjusted gross income.

The idea appealed to many on Thursday as people on their way to ring in the new brought in the old to drop-off points throughout the Valley. Some clutched plastic garbage bags with two or three sweaters. Others unloaded television sets from trucks.

At a Salvation Army trailer on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys, Chris Brown, 28, of Van Nuys dropped off a highchair and playpen that her three children had outgrown.

“My husband said, ‘Clean out the garage and find anything else we can give away for a deduction,’ ” Brown said.

A Mission Hills man who declined to give his name did the same with a bag of clothes.

“It’s just another deduction,” he said. “I try to get as much as I can get.”

Some people said they were more interested in charity than deductions.

Bernard Blau, 48, of Granada Hills unloaded five boxes and a bag containing sweaters, soccer shoes and jeans at a Salvation Army trailer in Mission Hills.

“It’s time to give something back,” Blau said.

Others said they decided to donate because they had no use for goods that were replaced by recent Christmas presents. Some needed to clean out their closets. But even many of those people said that visions of taxes had danced in their heads as they made the deliveries.

“I’m here because my girlfriend got all these pots and pans for Christmas,” said 34-year-old Steve Sweeney, who dropped off a box of cookware. “But she definitely wanted the write-off on it.

“You have to do anything you can today to work everything off just because of what Uncle Sam does to the common man,” said Sweeney, taking a receipt for the donation.

After all, it was a time not just to give. But also to receipt.