Donating your car to charity has many advantages. You get a tax deduction of $500 or more and help a charity too. It sounds like it should be very simple and it is simple, as long as you know how to do it properly.
Before you just blindly hand over the title to your car, do your homework. Find how much money the charity will receive. If they are using a car donation center, ask how much of the actual sale price the charity will receive. The term "net sale price" means the actual sale price minus auction fees, selling fees, or other fees charged that center. In some cases, these fees may exceed the selling price of the car. If so, the charity may have to pay the car donation center the difference and they will lose money on your car donation. You won't know if you don’t ask! You should make a copy of your title and wrtie down who is going to tow your car. You should either mail your title to the charity or hand it directly to the person towing your car after they give you a receipt. Never, ever just leave the title in the car! If you do, you may not get a receipt and will have no proof of your donation. Make sure you remove your license plates and any stickers on your windshield if you live in one of the several states that require you to. In those states you won't be able to cancel your car insurance until you have returned the lisence plates to the Department of Motor Vehicles or transferred them to another car. You won't be able to do either if you leave them on the car and you may receive someone else’s parking tickets! Make sure you keep all the correspondence between you and the charity. If you don't, you won’t have a record of your donation and it will be a problem when you try to file for your tax deduction. As with most things, the more informed you are the smoother the process will be.
Author Resource:
Karen Campese is the Co-founder and CEO of Cars4Charities, a not for profit car donation center. They have over 1,000 respected charities that you can donate car to. When you donate your car , you get a tax deduction and help a good cause.