Do I Need to Donate My Car For Cash Or a Charity?

Are you considering finally getting rid of your old, filthy car that’s been sitting for a long time outside your home? What about considering donating your old car? Car donation provides a variety of advantages just like being environmentally friendly through recycling, leading to charitable institutions, and extra tax incentives. Here are a few important points you might like to consider when deciding whether or not to donate your vehicle for cash or charity.

Donating a car for cash

One of the main advantages of car donation particularly in tough economic times, gets cash return or an equivalent incentive for the old car. Car donation enables you to take an end of the year tax break. What you can write off in your taxes would depend on the fair market price of the car, up to $500 or the same in principle as the gross value. Largely because of abuse from the system, current regulations state that owners can’t make use of the fair market price of vehicles a lot more than $500. In case your car is worth less than $500, you are able to safely deduct the Fair Market price in the Kelley Blue Book or NADA guides.

Equal cash for car donation

Some car donation programs offer partial cash payment to donors called spiffs. Spiffs are “gifts” distributed by charities in return for your donation. These cash equivalent payments range from proceeds from the sale and therefore are typically restricted to quality value donations. This can be a win-win proposition since the charity receives a greater contribution for his or her programs and also you, the donor, also reap greater rewards simultaneously. Some popular spiffs include hotel stays in popular resort destinations, free membership to exclusive clubs, and discounts on flight tickets. Cash and funds equivalents awarded to donors are beginning to become a popular money-making scheme which means that a lot of profit driven folks are benefiting from it. Make sure that car donation program you select is reputable and tax-qualified (non-profit) organization to prevent challenge with the IRS.

Donating a Car for Charity

When you donate car to charity, you’re purchasing worthy causes that are in position to help others. Some popular car donation programs that work strictly via charitable contribution include Habitat for Humanity and programs made to benefit veterans who’ve served our country. As you won’t receive money in hand, you can find tax incentives that you could reap through your charitable contribution. Your selected institution receives a very important resource and you receive self-satisfaction from helping others.

However, drawbacks of charitable car donation include additional documentation requirements required by IRS. Obviously, this will depend about the claimed value of the car. The more expensive the worthiness, the greater it might flag the interest of the IRS. Even still, an alternative choice to the extra paperwork would be to sell your vehicle and give some of the proceeds to charity afterwards. In this manner, you’ll have a good documentation for the donation and still hand back to the charitable institution.

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