There are two benefits that you can get if you decide to donate a car instead of selling it. First, donating a car is a thoughtful and benevolent action while selling a car is obviously not. Second, if you sell your old car, the profit that you can get is usually not very significant. An old car will mostly be valued in car markets far below its fair market value. Therefore, you actually suffer loss if you decide to remove your old car by selling it. If you donate your car, you can get tax deduction according to the fair market value of your car. For that reason, by donating your car to a charity organization or any organizations that need your car, you have gained both moral and financial profits. Therefore, if you have an old car in your garage that you want to remove, especially because your ownership of it burdens you with unnecessary tax, you should consider donating it instead of selling it.
However, donating a car is not a simple thing that you can do carelessly. There are a number of aspects that you need to consider when you want to donate your car. First, you have to choose the organization to which you want to pass your car. Finding a charity organization is fairly easy if you use online search engines because there are many charity organizations that have established dedicated websites through which you can communicate and deal a transaction with them. When you are looking for a charity organization that allows you to perform auto donations, you need to make sure that the organization has been registered under 501(c)(3) or certified to accept donation lawfully.
After finding a charity organization that is lawful to receive your donation, you can start learning about your car’s fair market value by visiting IRS website and reading publications 561 and 526. You can thus apply for tax reduction according to the information that you get.