What is my Donation worth?
The IRS changed the rules regarding how much of a deduction you
can take from your Federal Taxes when you donate a car. Such donations
have become quite popular in the last few years, and the IRS decided
that they needed clarify the rules.
As of January 1, 2005, if the value of the donated vehicle is over
$500 and the item is sold by the charity or its agent, the deduction
the taxpayer may take is limited to the amount of money the charity
actually receives from selling the vehicle.
|
|
|
The organization handling the vehicle donation must
also provide the donor with an letter within 30 days of completing
the sale, indicating the actual amount received from the sale minus
any fees.
Here are a few helpful hints:
1. Clean the Car
Any car will sell better and for more if its clean. The car charity
will probably hire someone to clean the car if its not clean and
that cost will be deducted from the actual value of the vehicle.
2. Make Minor Repairs
Dont pour a bunch of money into the vehicle your going to donate,
but if little things are in need of repair, fix them. Changing tail
light bulbs or gluing the rear view mirror back on wont cost you
much to do but will reduct the value of your tax deduction if you
dont make the repairs yourself.
3. Research
Unless you want to donate only to one specific charity, you should
research the various charities and see if there are costs or fees
associated with the sale of the vehicle. Some charities use an outside
company to sell thier donated vehicles and those companies usually
charge a commission on every sale, which gets applied against the
value of your vehicle and lowers your tax deduction.
You can read more about the IRS rules by reading: Federal
Tax Deductions For Vehicle Donations
Car Value News
$keyword = 'car+value';
}
else
// process news topic selected
// <- EDIT THIS ->
switch ($feedid)
{
default:
$keyword = 'car+value';
break;
}
$news_url = 'http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=' . $keyword . '&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt';
// <- EDIT THIS ->
require_once "/home/joeychgo/carp/carp.php";
$rssnews='';
// clear caches for maintneance.
CarpClearCache(1);
// channel info
// <- EDIT THIS ->
CarpConf('maxcdesc',200);
// CarpConf('cborder','link');
CarpConf('cborder','');
CarpConf('bcb','');
CarpConf('acb','
');
CarpConf('bcimage',' ');
CarpConf('acimage',' ');
CarpConf('maxcimagew',200);
CarpConf('maxcimageh',100);
// refresh every 1 hours
CarpConf('cacheinterval',60);
// item info
CarpConf('maxitems',2);
CarpConf('linktarget',1);
CarpConf('iorder','link,date,author,desc');
CarpConf('bi','');
CarpConf('ai','
');
CarpConf('biimage','');
CarpConf('aiimage',' ');
CarpConf('maxiimagew',100);
CarpConf('maxiimageh',150);
CarpConf('maxidesc',600);
CarpConf('maxititle',400);
// select the cache file
$keyword = str_replace ("+"," ",$keyword);
$news_title = ucwords(strtolower($keyword)) . " News";
$keyword = str_replace (" ","",$keyword);
// get the cached feed
ob_start();
CarpCacheShow($news_url, $keyword);
$rssnews = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
echo 'Current ' . $news_title . '
' . $rssnews . '';
// end news hack
?>
|
