What to know about donating your car
The IRS is looking a lot more closely at this type of charitable donation these days. There are a couple of things you need to do to make sure you are in compliance with the rules. First, if the car has a value greater than $5000.00 you must have an independent appraisal, by a professional like Auto Analyst, to back up the deduction you are taking. In reality it is a good idea to have any car or truck, regardless of its value, appraised before donating just to make sure your deduction is not disallowed if you were to get audited at some time in the future. Second, there is a form: IRS 8283 that must be signed by the charity receiving the vehicle and the appraiser who evaluated the car. If you take these two important steps, your charitable donation should go much smoother for you. There is nothing worse than finding this out in April while doing your taxes when you donated the car in December.
DOH!
Go here for Forms and necessary information: http://www.autoanalyst.com/CarBuyingAdvice.htm#IRS_Forms_&_Info_For_Charitable_Donations