Donate Car

If you're looking to donate the unsightly car that has been leaking oil onto your driveway for months, you have no shortage of charity and not-for-profit organizations to choose from.

In the days before we could donate a car, we had essentially two options. First, we could call the guys advertising on late night TV and in the yellow pages, who promised fast cash for your old car or truck. Our second option was paying a towing company to take it to an auto salvage yard or scrap metal dealer.

Donating cars is a way to get a little of both. You don't have to pay for car removal anymore, and when you donate to a charity, you can usually write off about $500 on your Federal taxes.

In reality, you save about $100 on towing and get one or two hundred in tax savings next April. The hope is that the Charity "profits" based on what they are able to get for your donated car at auction, for spare parts, or through an auto salvage company.

Given all the different organizations out there these days, you just have to careful that the organization you choose to donate your car to is actually a Federally recognized 5013c charity. Without that distinction, and a written receipt from them, you not earn the tax savings.