Car Donation Programs - Look Before You Donate

A huge selection of charities have begun to look at car donation programs as a way to raise funds in order to provide themselves with no-cost vehicles to help operate their programs. But instead than handling the car donation programs themselves, they will consider fundraising organizations to actually handle the donation and auctioning of the vehicles. Which policy can mean a problem in your case?

In the event you run an Internet explorer car donation programs, you will get numerous hits from fundraisers who declare that they will allow you to choose from among a group of charities to which the proceeds of one's car's sale, of not the auto itself, will go. And they'll provide you with the paperwork you should claim when you donate car as a charitable deduction on your IRS returns.

Taking Advice From The IRS

But the IRS itself, recently, has become alarmed in the proliferation of car donation programs run by fundraisers which wind up keeping the majority of the proceeds they receive for donated cars. The IRS recommends that it you are considering the car donation programs, you contact the people running it and obtain a clear answer as to whether they are charity officials, or private group acting for the charity.

In the event that they are a personal group running the car donation programs of countless charities, find out precisely what they expect to do with the car you donate. Will the car be repaired and directed at the charity to help in its work? Or do the fundraisers intend to auction the vehicle off and if so, what amount of the proceeds goes towards the fundraisers, and how much towards the charity?

Car donation programs which cannot, or won't, give you clear answers to those questions are not those on which you can depend to see that your ca, or the money it brings gets, on the charity of your choosing. And if the charity does not directly obtain the car or its value, you don't need to the right to claim the worth of the car as a deduction.

Legitimate car donation programs greatly simplify the process of connecting you with a charity that can benefit from your gift. But it's your responsibility to research the various car donation programs in your soul area and ensure that as much a potential of one's car's value will probably be channeled to the charity, which the charity itself is one identified by the IRS. Otherwise, your well-intended car donation risk turning into a serious problem at tax time, whenever you attempt to take an unwarranted deduction.