Does It Make Financial Sense To Donate a Car to a Charity?
It's easy to donate a car to charity if all you want to
do is get rid of it. Simply call a charity that accepts old vehicles,
and it will tow your heap away.
If you want to maximize the benefits for both the charity and yourself, however, it's more complicated. Until 2005, it was easy for taxpayers to deduct the entire "fair market value" of a donated vehicle from their taxable income, reducing the taxes they'd have to pay to the Internal Revenue Service. (The IRS defines fair market value as "the price a willing buyer would pay and a willing seller would accept for the vehicle, when neither party is compelled to buy or sell and both parties have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.")
Allowing taxpayers to deduct the full fair market value for all those donated vehicles cost the IRS a lot of dollars, however, so the agency tightened the rules. Today, you can only deduct a vehicle's fair market value under very specific conditions. We're going to walk you through those conditions, with the usual proviso that you should discuss these issues with your tax preparer before you act. Also note that if your state or locality also levies income taxes, other rules may also apply.
You Must Itemize Your Return
If you want to claim fair market value for your car donation to reduce your federal income taxes, you must itemize deductions, says Twila D. Midwood, an enrolled agent based in Rockledge, Florida. An enrolled agent is a tax expert who can represent clients before the IRS.
If you've always filed 1040EZ tax returns and you plan to keep filing them, you won't be able to deduct any amount for the car donation. You can file a regular 1040 tax form and itemize, even if the donated auto is your only deduction. That's usually not the best choice, however, unless you like paying a lot more taxes to the IRS than you must.
"For tax purposes, because a donation is a deduction from your income, the tax benefit relates to your tax bracket," Midwood says. "It's not a dollar-for-dollar item."
Here's the math: Suppose you are in the 28 percent tax bracket. Your donated car's value, and thus the deduction, is $1,000. "The $1,000 deduction will save you $280," Midwood says. If you're in the 15 percent tax bracket and you donate a car worth $1,000, it will only reduce your taxes by $150.
If instead you take the standard deduction, which in 2012 was $5,950 for a single individual or $11,900 for a married couple filing together, you save thousands of dollars over filing an itemized return only for the purposes of detailing your car donation.
The only way that donating a car nets you any tax benefit is if you have many deductions, and if their total sum, including the car, exceeds your standard deduction.
The Charity Must Qualify
Your city councilman's campaign organization and your hobby club may be nonprofit organizations, but donating a car to them won't give you any tax benefits. Only "qualified" charities can provide those for you. A qualified charity is one that has been approved by the IRS as an "exempt-status" or 501(c)(3) organization, Midwood says. Most organizations will state in their advertising or receipts that they're a 501(c)(3) if indeed they are one, she says. "If you're not sure, ask."
Religious organizations are a special case. They do count as qualified organizations, but they aren't required to file for 501(c)(3) status.
To help you determine whether a charity is qualified, the easiest thing to do is visit the IRS's exempt organizations site.
You also can call an IRS toll-free number: (877) 829-5500. If you do this, you'll have to listen to some recorded information about tax forms that probably don't apply to you. You'll then be given the option to "Press 2" to talk to a customer service rep about exempt organizations. Note that the waits can be quite long: up to 30 minutes.
You can always donate as much as you want to charities, but the IRS limits how much you can claim on your tax return. "Charitable donations can't exceed 50 percent of your gross income," Midwood says.
How To Deduct Fair Market Value
These are the four IRS rules under which you can get the maximum deduction (the fair market value) of a donated car:
1. When a charity auctions your car for $500 or less, you can claim either the fair market value or $500, whichever is less.
2. When the charity intends to make a "significant intervening use of the vehicle." This means the charity will use the car in its work, such as delivering meals to needy people.
3. When the charity intends to make a "material improvement" to the vehicle, which is "anything that increases the car's value and prolongs its life," Midwood says. "It can't be a minor repair or maintenance; it must be something like fixing the engine or systems that run the car," she says.
4. When the charity gives or sells the vehicle to a needy individual at a price significantly below fair market value, and the gift or sale is part of the charity's mission of helping the needy who need transportation.
How To Determine Fair Market Value
To recap, the IRS defines fair market value as the price a willing buyer would pay and a willing seller would accept for the vehicle, when neither party is compelled to buy or sell and both parties have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. Neither the buyer nor the seller can be an auto dealer. Both must be private parties.
Edmunds.com makes it easy to determine your vehicle's fair market value. And, as Midwood says, your assessment has to be "an apples-to-apples comparison."
IRS Publication 4303 explains this in more detail: "If you use a vehicle pricing guide to determine fair market value, be sure that the sales price listed is for a vehicle that is the same make, model and year, sold in the same condition, and with the same or substantially similar options or accessories as your vehicle."
Here's an example: Let's say your car is a 2003 Honda Accord DX sedan (the lowest trim level). It has 200,000 miles and it's in "average" condition. Edmunds estimates it would be worth $1,862 in a private-party sale in Southern California. You can't instead claim the $5,318 private-party value of a Honda Accord EX sedan (a much higher trim level) with 100,000 miles in "clean condition" (a condition grade that's one step up from "average").
If you want to maximize the benefits for both the charity and yourself, however, it's more complicated. Until 2005, it was easy for taxpayers to deduct the entire "fair market value" of a donated vehicle from their taxable income, reducing the taxes they'd have to pay to the Internal Revenue Service. (The IRS defines fair market value as "the price a willing buyer would pay and a willing seller would accept for the vehicle, when neither party is compelled to buy or sell and both parties have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.")
Allowing taxpayers to deduct the full fair market value for all those donated vehicles cost the IRS a lot of dollars, however, so the agency tightened the rules. Today, you can only deduct a vehicle's fair market value under very specific conditions. We're going to walk you through those conditions, with the usual proviso that you should discuss these issues with your tax preparer before you act. Also note that if your state or locality also levies income taxes, other rules may also apply.
You Must Itemize Your Return
If you want to claim fair market value for your car donation to reduce your federal income taxes, you must itemize deductions, says Twila D. Midwood, an enrolled agent based in Rockledge, Florida. An enrolled agent is a tax expert who can represent clients before the IRS.
If you've always filed 1040EZ tax returns and you plan to keep filing them, you won't be able to deduct any amount for the car donation. You can file a regular 1040 tax form and itemize, even if the donated auto is your only deduction. That's usually not the best choice, however, unless you like paying a lot more taxes to the IRS than you must.
"For tax purposes, because a donation is a deduction from your income, the tax benefit relates to your tax bracket," Midwood says. "It's not a dollar-for-dollar item."
Here's the math: Suppose you are in the 28 percent tax bracket. Your donated car's value, and thus the deduction, is $1,000. "The $1,000 deduction will save you $280," Midwood says. If you're in the 15 percent tax bracket and you donate a car worth $1,000, it will only reduce your taxes by $150.
If instead you take the standard deduction, which in 2012 was $5,950 for a single individual or $11,900 for a married couple filing together, you save thousands of dollars over filing an itemized return only for the purposes of detailing your car donation.
The only way that donating a car nets you any tax benefit is if you have many deductions, and if their total sum, including the car, exceeds your standard deduction.
The Charity Must Qualify
Your city councilman's campaign organization and your hobby club may be nonprofit organizations, but donating a car to them won't give you any tax benefits. Only "qualified" charities can provide those for you. A qualified charity is one that has been approved by the IRS as an "exempt-status" or 501(c)(3) organization, Midwood says. Most organizations will state in their advertising or receipts that they're a 501(c)(3) if indeed they are one, she says. "If you're not sure, ask."
Religious organizations are a special case. They do count as qualified organizations, but they aren't required to file for 501(c)(3) status.
To help you determine whether a charity is qualified, the easiest thing to do is visit the IRS's exempt organizations site.
You also can call an IRS toll-free number: (877) 829-5500. If you do this, you'll have to listen to some recorded information about tax forms that probably don't apply to you. You'll then be given the option to "Press 2" to talk to a customer service rep about exempt organizations. Note that the waits can be quite long: up to 30 minutes.
You can always donate as much as you want to charities, but the IRS limits how much you can claim on your tax return. "Charitable donations can't exceed 50 percent of your gross income," Midwood says.
How To Deduct Fair Market Value
These are the four IRS rules under which you can get the maximum deduction (the fair market value) of a donated car:
1. When a charity auctions your car for $500 or less, you can claim either the fair market value or $500, whichever is less.
2. When the charity intends to make a "significant intervening use of the vehicle." This means the charity will use the car in its work, such as delivering meals to needy people.
3. When the charity intends to make a "material improvement" to the vehicle, which is "anything that increases the car's value and prolongs its life," Midwood says. "It can't be a minor repair or maintenance; it must be something like fixing the engine or systems that run the car," she says.
4. When the charity gives or sells the vehicle to a needy individual at a price significantly below fair market value, and the gift or sale is part of the charity's mission of helping the needy who need transportation.
How To Determine Fair Market Value
To recap, the IRS defines fair market value as the price a willing buyer would pay and a willing seller would accept for the vehicle, when neither party is compelled to buy or sell and both parties have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. Neither the buyer nor the seller can be an auto dealer. Both must be private parties.
Edmunds.com makes it easy to determine your vehicle's fair market value. And, as Midwood says, your assessment has to be "an apples-to-apples comparison."
IRS Publication 4303 explains this in more detail: "If you use a vehicle pricing guide to determine fair market value, be sure that the sales price listed is for a vehicle that is the same make, model and year, sold in the same condition, and with the same or substantially similar options or accessories as your vehicle."
Here's an example: Let's say your car is a 2003 Honda Accord DX sedan (the lowest trim level). It has 200,000 miles and it's in "average" condition. Edmunds estimates it would be worth $1,862 in a private-party sale in Southern California. You can't instead claim the $5,318 private-party value of a Honda Accord EX sedan (a much higher trim level) with 100,000 miles in "clean condition" (a condition grade that's one step up from "average").