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Monday 28 November 2011

Searching for A good Tax Break? Donate Your Car To Charity

By Geoff McAlister


Okay, that old rattletrap, rusting buggy still masquerading as a car has been taking up space in your driveway for much too long. It's become part of the neighborhood landscape. You've been able to miss it, however your neighbors are growing a little upset. You've bitten the bullet and realize the time has come to get rid of it, but how?

Why not get in touch with a charity to see if they are fascinated taking the vehicle as a donation? Not only is giving your car away to a charity good for deposit in your karma bank, when tax time rolls around, that donation can help keep a few of your cold hard cash in the bank also by permitting you to take a potentially sizable deduction. In the event you ask around, you will find numerous charities that have established programs to take cars as donations.

As you might expect with the IRS, you will find a few challenging rules. Giving a car away to charity for a tax break isn't as easy as it used to be. The old tax laws allowed you to write off the fair market value of any automobile given to charity. Fair market value was based on auto industry standard evaluation services, like the Kelly Blue Book, so if the Blue Book value of your car was $2,000, you got to write that whole amount off when tax time arrived. That system was fraught with abuse, nevertheless, with people claiming inflated donation values of $654 million in one year alone. Consequently, the law changed in 2005, and the IRS now places a few restrictions on the way donation deductions are stated.

The basic rule is that IRS places a cap on car donation deductions of $500. If your donation is worth more than that, then you will be needed to meet a couple of criteria before you are able to claim your deduction. First, you need to know how the charity is using your car. If they take if from you and sell it, then the price they sell it for is the amount you can claim as a deduction, even if it's less than the value of the vehicle. If the charity sells your automobile for more than it is worth, you are able to only claim a deduction up to the fair marketplace value of the vehicle.

There are a few exceptions. If the charity decides to give the car away to a needy person, or if they sell the car to a disadvantaged person for much below the fair market value, then in most instances you can claim the actual worth of your automobile as your deduction. Furthermore, under the "Intervening Use Exception," if the charity makes use of your car for awhile prior to selling it, and then sells it for below the fair market value, you can claim the value of your car at the time of the donation as your deduction, since their use of the car lowered the value.

Nevertheless, if the charity makes enhancements to the car, increasing its value, and later sells it for more than it was worth when you donated it, you can still only claim the fair market value of the vehicle at the time of donation. Whatever situation applies to you, the charity ought to notify you in writing within 30 days of receipt of the car of their intentions for the automobile and the donation value. If they sell the car, they must notify you within 30 days in writing of the sale price.

Of course, deductions are not deducted directly from your tax bill, but instead permit you to reduce your tax bill by a percentage. Precisely how much a deduction will take off your tax bill depends on your income, your tax bracket and how you file.






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