Donating Car to Charity

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Charity )



Donating car to charity is an easy way to get rid of a vehicle you no longer want or need.

There are two main ways to donate vehicles:

A clearinghouse for auto donations or third party brokers receives and sells the vehicle for you. They take a portion of the amount sold for their commission and give the rest to charity. Since there is no law on how much one should give to charity, there is also no way in telling how much of the proceeds will go to the charity of your choice. Do check with the broker or clearinghouse how much they will give to charity before handing over your vehicle.

A more favorable option is donating car to charity where the vehicle is sold directly by the charity. In this way, the charity gets a larger share of the proceeds of the sale and can assign the money directly to those in need. Do check however with your chosen charity whether they accept car donations; not all charities have a car donation program.

It is advised that when donating car to charity, that you run a background check on the charity of your choice and the third party broker if you opt to use one, see what responsibilities you have as a donor to the charity and see if you are entitled to a tax benefit.

Do also consider that when donating your car to charity that you can only deduct the fair market value of your donation. This means that you should deduct any depreciation from the fair market value of your car. Be careful, as your depreciation could be equal to zero deduction.

Make sure when you donate vehicles that the vehicle title is transferred to the charity's name so that you are not held liable for any traffic violations or any car accidents that happen after you donate the car.

When you are totally decided in donating your vehicle to charity, you should also check with the Inland Revenue Service for guidelines.


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