Tips on How to Donate your Car
There is an article on MSNBC.com that gives tips on how to properly donate your car. It sounds easy enough: find someone to donate the car to, and give it to them. Right? Wrong. This is a big asset and you need to follow the steps below to make sure that you donate correctly.
1. Avoid Middlemen-There are all kinds of ads out there that say they can help you donate your cars. The problem is that the charity loses money to this middleman. Just contact the charity yourself to set up donation.
2. Find a worthy charity - If the charities that you normally support do not accept donated cars, do some homework, you will find charities in your area that do.
3. Know the status of your recipient - in order for you to get a deduction, the organization that you donate to must be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization.
4. Do the delivery yourself - if you drop off the car yourself, you will save the charity money that they otherwise would have to spend to have someone pick it the car.
5. Transfer the vehicle with care - you want to eliminate all risk of parking tickets and other violations happening after you’ve donated the car by formally transferring the title to the charity.
6. You need to make sure you get a receipt from the charity on how much money the charity got for the car. (most charities, accept your donation then turn around and sell the car)
7. Keep a thorough paper trail - if your donation is worth more than $500, you need to attach IRS form 8283 to your tax return. If it’s worth more than $5000, you need an appraisal, a receipt and title change from the charity.
8. Be detail-oriented - paper trails may seem to be a burden, but this may be one of the biggest charitable donations you ever make. You want to make sure that the charity gets the most benefit and you get the biggest possible donation that you can.