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Charity Contributions
by Jim Allen
http://www.quasicharity.com
Making charitable contributions is a wonderful way to help
out your fellow man, but it is also a good way to get some
tax breaks. One really good method is to donate a car to
charity. However, there are some things you will need to do
in order to donate a car to charity and claim the donation
on your tax returns.
Your first action when considering a charity to donate a car
to is to check and see if the charity is qualified. The
reason you need to do this is to see if the charitable
organization is legitimate. This is really easy to do and
all you have to do is log onto the IRS web site to check and
see if the organization is listed.
Another important question you need to ask the charity is
what are their plans for the vehicle? You have every right
to ask this question and receive a reasonable response. Some
charities might accept vehicle donations and then sell them
in order to raise money while other charities might use the
car for poor people without transportation. Regardless, find
out what the vehicle will be used for before you donate it.
If you do not receive an answer then perhaps you will look
for a different charitable organization to donate to.
Make sure you determine the fair market value of the vehicle
in order to claim the donation on your taxes. You will not
be able to simply claim the Blue Book value for your vehicle
but will have to take into account the vehicles condition,
and accessories you have added, and the like. There are
several IRS and other guides that will help you come up with
the fair market value of the vehicle.
Another tip is to find out what laws govern the donating of
a vehicle to charity in your state. Some states will require
you to transfer the title to the charitable organization
while other states handle the transfer differently. Also,
you will need to remove any license tags from the vehicle
before giving it to the charitable organization. This will
keep the car separate from you once you have donated it.
You will also need to learn about your states laws
governing charitable contributions of vehicles. Most likely,
you will simply need to remove the license tag and have the
title transferred to the charitable organizations name.
If you still have questions regarding donating vehicles to
charity and claiming the donation as a deduction on your
taxes then you should talk to an IRS representative in order
to get your answers cleared up.
Donating a car to charity is a really good thing to do and
it will help you out on your tax returns as well. Just be
careful because there are charities that will tell you what
you want to hear, which can cause problems for you when you
try to claim your donation. Just make sure you have all
questions answered by the IRS.
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