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In the news:
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BY SUSAN TOMPOR
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
December 15, 2004
The quick-and-easy tax break for car donations will soon be roadkill.
Beginning Jan. 1, it's going to be far less lucrative for taxpayers to
donate their old cars, trucks and boats to a qualified charity in order to
take a tax deduction. So you might want to be even more charitable within,
say, the next 16 days.
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Driven to
donate By Kim Leonard
For The Tribune Review
Sunday, July 18, 2004
As many as 1.2 million vehicles ranging from clunkers
that won't start to well kept recent models are donated annually to
Goodwill, the National Kidney Foundation, the Salvation Army and other
organizations nationwide that then sell them, usually at auction.
But there is widespread concern about federal legislation that could pass
this fall, setting tougher standards for tax deductions on car donations and
possibly curbing interest in giving.
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Charitable groups say two provisions to
reduce allegedly excessive tax deductions would slash the number of vehicles
given to good causes.
Kathy M. Kristof
LA Times
July 4, 2004
You've heard the ads on the radio: Donate your car to us, the pitch goes,
and in return you'll get a charitable deduction for its full, fair-market
value.
It turns out that many donors appear to have gotten full market value, and
then some.
A General Accounting Office study released in December found a huge
disparity between what taxpayers were deduct- ing and what charities were
receiving. Taxpayers wrote off $654 million in auto donations for the 2000
tax year, but charities received only about 5% of that value, the GAO found.
The implication, of course, is that motorists are exaggerating the value of
their gifts. And under current law, many such fudges are tough to detect.
Taxpayers who give items worth less than $5,000 are simply supposed to make
a good-faith effort to put a fair value on the property.
Taxpayers who hope to claim bigger deductions for donated property must get
an appraisal. But if someone gives a junker worth $2,000 and says it's worth
$4,999, there is not much — outside of launching an audit — that the
Internal Revenue Service can do.
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NEW PUBLICATIONS FOCUS ON
CAR DONATIONS
By
Jul 2, 2004, 10:44 PST
NEW PUBLICATIONS FOCUS ON CAR DONATIONS
WASHINGTON - Internal Revenue Service officials today
announced the release of two new publications dealing with car donations as
part of an effort to help taxpayers avoid potential pitfalls when they
donate automobiles to charities.
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The ads are everywhere: Donate your car, help the needy, get a tax break
in return -- everybody wins.
Cynthia Schwager heard one of those pitches from the California Council
of the Blind and decided it was the perfect solution to her 1994 Ford Taurus
with the bum engine.
So, like hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, she gave her car
to a nonprofit group.
What she didn't know is that most of the proceeds would go to overhead
expenses for the car-donation program -- and to the middleman company that
runs it. In 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, the
Council of the Blind received just 17 percent of the proceeds from vehicles
sold on its behalf.
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Car Donations May Hit IRS Roadblock
by Adam Wills,
Associate Editor
Get rid of your old car, help out a charity and get a write-off. What could
be easier?
With the April 15 IRS deadline drawing near, charities are tapping
taxpayer frustration by increasing their appeals for vehicle donations. But
a proposed government crackdown on the value donors can claim for a donated
vehicle is changing the way programs are being advertised
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Don't dump that old car, donate it
When your old jalopy is down to its last sputter,
don't automatically trade it in. That beater may be worth more to you as a
tax deduction.
There are, however, some tax rules to keep in mind.
First, the timing of your auto donation is critical.
All charitable gifts must be made in the tax year for which you are filing
the return. So to be claimed on your 2003 tax return (due by April 15), you
must have given your car to a charity by last Dec. 31. Any donation you make
now will still help your favorite nonprofit, but you can't take tax
advantage of it until next year.
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Treasury Seeks New Rules
on Car Donation Tax Breaks
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
FOXNEWS.COM
Associated Press
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department (search), responding to evidence that
taxpayers who donate cars to charities tend to overstate their value, asked
Congress to impose new restrictions on deductions for donated automobiles.
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GAO hits car donation disparity
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 13, 2003
A General Accounting Office report released yesterday found big
discrepancies between the dollar amounts many Americans claim as deductions
for car donations on their tax returns and the money charities actually
receive from the sales of the vehicles. |
IRS
Urges Caution When Making Car Donation
Dec. 16, 2003 (SmartPros) — The
Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert Monday to help taxpayers
avoid potential pitfalls when they donate their automobiles to charities. |
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Report:
Car donation helps giver the most
December 13, 2003
Philanthropy group president
says most of the charitable gifts are "a rip-off of the tax system."
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Investigators very
critical of car-donation programs
December 17, 2003
Congressional investigators released a blistering account of charity
vehicle donation programs last week, asserting that, although the programs
cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue each
year, comparatively little money ends up in charity coffers.
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IRS taking another
look at car donations to charities
Published December 23, 2003
Congressional investigators released a blistering account of charity vehicle
donation programs recently, asserting that although the programs cost the
government hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year,
comparatively little money ends up in charity coffers.
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Some get more mileage out of an old car that goes
to charity
But not all donations go smoothly, government warn
Saturday, December 27, 2003By
DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Donated junkers head for the scrap heap, reliable cars go to working
folks and hot donations -- like that '91 Lexus and Mazda Miata -- are posted
on eBay.
Ka-ching.
When all goes well with charitable vehicle donations, nothing is wasted
and everybody wins, according to Jim Brown, program director for the auto
donation program of Volunteers of America/Western Washington in Everett, one
of the oldest and largest such programs in the state. People who desperately
need cars get them for low cost, charities get a boost and donors avoid
hassles, feel good about helping others -- and get a tax deduction.
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