Donate Your Car New York – Tips & Tricks

Before you donate your car in New York, it is essential that you check that the charity concerned is an IRS registered charity; this is so you can claim a tax deduction from your car donation. You can find the status of the charity on the IRS website by checking IRS publication 78, this will provide a list of all the 501(c)3 eligible charities for tax purposes.

Tips for making your car donation in New York a smooth one

There are many car charities to choose from in the State of New York to make a donation too. In fact several charities like Kars4kids.org NY car donation program will not only give you a tax deduction for your vehicle but will also give a free vacation voucher or free hotel stay for your trouble.

What you must do when donating your car in NY :

• You need to remove your license plates before handing over your vehicle. Take them to your local DMV so that your car registration can be canceled. You will then be in a position to cancel the insurance on the vehicle. Failure to do so will give you needless insurance payments on a vehicle that is no longer yours. More information can be found on the NY DMV website New York Department of Motor Vehicles

• Most popular car charity New York pick up your vehicle and tow it away for free, so if you are asked for a fee to tow your car away you may want to reconsider your car donation charity. If the charity is nearby, you may want to consider dropping off the vehicle yourself which will save on the considerable towing fees that the charity incurs.

• To get a car donation tax deduction you will need to fill in section A of the IRS tax return form 1040, including your donation as an itemized deduction.

• If the vehicle is worth less than $500, you would only need the receipt of donation from the charity and fair market valuation from Kelley Blue Book for your tax return. If however your vehicle is valued at greater than $500, you will need the amount that the charity received gross after auction of the vehicle. You cannot use the fair market valuation in this scenario because the charities normally auction off the vehicles at wholesale prices. The amount received at auction will usually be a lot less than the fair market valuation. The IRS obviously know this to be the case, so they insist on the sale figure amount to be used as your itemized tax deduction. If your vehicle falls into this valuation bracket then you will need to fill in IRS Form 8283, which can be found on the IRS website.

If you follow these simple rules when you donate your car in New York you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you made a difference to those in need. Plus, a tax break will be heading your way and possibly a nice vacation if you seek out the right charity for your car donation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Car Donation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.