Im planning on donating a vehicle to charity how much are the tax incentives if I do a tax write off?

Question

how much $ would i get back? i plan on donating the money i receive to other charities.............Los Angeles, California.... thnxs

Answer 1

You won't get money back for donating a car, but you may reduce taxes you owe.

You must itemize on Schedule A to benefit from a charitable donation. Usually, the amount you can deduct is the amount the charity receives for selling the car.

For example, if they sell the car for $1,000 and you are in the 25% tax bracket, you reduce your taxes by a maximum of $250.

Answer 2

The charity will probably sell the car. Your deduction will be the smaller of whatever they sell it for. Generally they will sell it at wholesale, which could be significantly below market value for the vehicle.

You have to itemize to get any tax benefit from it. Your tax savings would be a maximum of the amount of the deduction times your tax bracket. So if they sell the car for $2000 and your tax bracket is 15%, your tax savings would be at most $300 - that's if you already had enough deductions before the donation to itemize.

Answer 3

It is better that you sell the car yourself and give the money to the charitable organization. If you donate the car to the organization, they have to first sell it, and you can deduct only the amount realized by the organization. It may be much less than what you can get by selling the car yourself. The organization will send you 1098-C.

If the market value of the car is less than $500, the you can deduct the market value of your car without documentation other than a receipt from the charity if you limit your deduction to $500.

You can deduct your charitable contributions only if you itemize your deductions. In that case, you will not get your normal standard deduction.