Donating a Car

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Charity )



Donating to Charity
Donating to charity has many advantages. Donations to charitable institutions often give tax incentives. These donations can be considered as deductions from your taxes, if the law in your state allows it.

Donating a Car
Many charities require automobiles to carry out their functions. If you have a car that is not in use, or that you are thinking of disposing of, consider donating your car to charity. Donating a car will, of course, not make you wealthier, but it can be a great way to help your favorite charity. And as mentioned above, there are tax incentives available in many states. Yours may be one of them.

How to Donate a Car to Charity
Donating a car will involve a deed of donation. It is basically a contract which states that you are giving over property (the car) to a donee (the charity), which will need to be an incorporated institution or an individual. Since the donation is a contract, it will need to be executed between two persons. Under the law, corporations are persons, and they can be parties to a contract. If the charity you wish to donate to is not properly incorporated, you cannot execute a deed of donation in its favor. Nothing will stop you from giving the car to the charity, but in the eyes of the law, the gift can only be accepted by a person. This person may be an individual or a corporation (a corporation is a juridical person). Thus, to make the deed of donation valid legally (and this will be important to get the tax incentive), you will need to find a way to validly execute a deed of donation in favor of a charity.

A Possible Solution
A solution to the problem of wanting to give to a charity that is not incorporated is to donate the car to a person who is in charge of the charity. This may or may not be considered by the tax authorities as a donation to charity. The best solution would be to find a charity that already has been incorporated, if your main interest is the tax incentive. If it is not, you can wait until the charity incorporates. After all, the law in many countries requires charities to incorporate. This is to their benefit, because, as you have noticed, gifts to charity that allow tax incentives need to be given to charities that are persons in the eyes of the law.


All rights Reserved © Tradenet Services srl
Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.