Charitable Intentions In Car Donation

As we move through the journey called life, there are some people who leave an indelible impression upon us. These people have reached levels tat others can just adulate them and hope to emulate in some small measure. One of these idols was Mother Teresa who was known the world across for her love and charity.

The Missionaries of Charity that she set up in Calcutta, India was famous across the globe and was run as an institution based on the charity and donations of patrons and donors from the whole world. There are so many charities around the US too which are putting in a stellar effort to give others a better chance at life. One of the major ways in which people are now donating is through car donation. Americans own the maximum number of cars in the world and when their cars get old, they have the option of donating these cars to charity to help charitable institutions in some measure.

If you are contemplating car donation be sure that you do not overstate the amount that the car went for, because the IRS may come calling, and you might even cause trouble for the people who received your car because they will have issues getting a fair auto insurance coverage. The IRS believes that many people are misusing the car donation provisions for getting more tax deductions than they should. It is also a fact that the IRS is running special scrutiny drives to ensure that the claims are authentic and not bogus. It is quite incredible that people should use even charity for their financial gain, but then, that's life. You get all kinds of people. In fact when the car donation scheme was unaltered, there were so many people who were claiming tax deductions to the extent of the market value of their cars and getting 33% deductions on these. This was really not helping the charities too, because the middlemen or dealers were pocketing the maximum part of the proceeds and giving the charities just peanuts. It's no wonder now that many car donation accepting charities now have their own parking lots from where they auction the cars they receive. Donations of vans, boats, trucks and also old airplanes are not uncommon, incidentally.

The IRS rules now specify that if claims are false, the IRS would remove the claims and even add on penalties and fins as a punitive measure. It is reported that the IRS has put car donation as its topmost priority for audit and scrutiny as it there are quite a few tax scams that have been perpetrated in the name of car donation. The IRS believes that some people think they can get away with making huge claims and getting big tax deductions on cars that are almost worthless.

The number of claims has gone up since 1996 when billions of dollars worth of donations were made, anything from Pontiac Cars to Porsches. The IRS lists charities donating to which will give you a tax break and you should be checking this out. After all, your primary intention should be to donate to charity and not to make money or save taxes off it.