Continue reading »]]> With the popularity of the concept of car donations a plethora of car donation centers have sprung up. However a lot of them have been established to rip people off in a number of ways.

There are a number of things that can give away the fraudulent nature of a donation center. You’ll find some companies to be advertising their tax deduction advantage to be equivalent to the market price of the car. We cannot trust such organizations to be legitimate.

Secondly you will be able to find some companies that offer the donors a fraction of the amount that they earn by selling the car in the market. When you donate car you are entitled to receive a receipt from the donation centre. This must have the name of the charity to which the proceedings from the sale of the car will be going to. If it doesn’t it means the donation center is trying to take you for a ride.

It is very important to carefully analyze the panel of charities to which a particular donation center provides the donated cars. This is because there are some centers that have actually made up additional names of charity organizations that do not exist in reality.

If you keep all the above-mentioned aspects in mind when it comes to selecting a car donations agency then you will not fall victim to fraud and scams. Ideally you should opt for a donation center that has been listed on the IRS website under publication 78 such as Carshelpingamerica.org

Continue reading »]]> Car donation is a good alternative to selling your car to an unknown buyer. Not only car donation gives you an opportunity to be a part of a noble cause, it also saves much of your time, money and effort that are involved in looking for prospective buyers for your car. Moreover, one can also claim tax deduction in case of car donation.

But despite offering numerous benefits, car donation is not considered a feasible idea by many people. This is because the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) rules are becoming tougher and tougher day by day. Several years ago, IRS allowed donors to deduct fair market value from their taxes. It meant that if a car had a market value of say $3,000, donors could reduce their taxes up to a whopping $990 (considering 33 percent tax bracket). It worked as a great incentive for many and millions of Americans, in view of making their tax burden lighter, went ahead to donate a car.

But with a change in the norms of the IRS in 2004-05, the deduction was limited to the actual selling price of the car, if it was valued for more than $500. This has made car donation a little less feasible for many prospective donors. With the change in this law, consumers who own high valued old cars are the most affected. Now donors are not even entitled to know the amount of deduction before donating the car. One should understand that despite the change in law, car donation is still a lucrative option as compared to selling it out to someone.