Hello and Welcome to Your Car Donations Blog, I hope you find the answer to your questions here.

When you’ve got an extra car or truck lying about with nothing to do, perhaps you can assist a veteran and her or his family through the Purple Heart Car Donation Program.  Especially in a time of apparently unending war, it is easy to make the case that every American owes a veteran and most especially those who’ve been injured in the line of duty.

One could also make the argument that programs such as the Purple Heart Car Donation Program are necessary because federal officials aren’t doing a very good job of taking care of the veterans that it keeps pledging to do a better job of fixing up.  However, veterans groups have rarely felt very well taken care of, so the need for charitable programs has always been a part of veteran life.

Given how the cost of insurance (that veterans are not automatically entitled to) keeps going up for veterans and everyone else, it’s no wonder that there is so much work to be done by the Purple Heart Car Donation Program and other veterans’ groups.  Indeed, the amount of money paid for the demonstrably sub-standard care given at some Veterans’ Administration (VA) hospitals, has been something of a national scandal since the first Gulf War in the early 1990s.

So, it may surprise you that an old car or truck may be donated to the Purple Heart Car Donation Program without even leaving your pajamas.  From their website, you may fill in all the pertinent information that will allow someone to call and arrange a time for pickup

The Purple Heart Car Donation Program differs from many programs in that it doesn’t necessarily just sell your vehicle on the open, wholesale market as many online donation services do.  In this case, they run their own, non-profit pick up, delivery and repair services.  Also, unlike many other services, you’re allowed to drive your running car up to their offices for donation.

There are many good, charitable outreach missions supported by proceeds generated from the Purple Heart Car Donation Program.  For instance, some of the better cars are used to assist veterans in getting to their medical appointments.  Sometimes monies are used to help families get on their feet during war time, or to even help purchase a prosthetic limb better than the most basic models that are covered by veterans’ insurance, despite the high fees charged for such coverage.

That organizations such as the Purple Heart Car Donation Program are even necessary is a surprise to many who have, perhaps rightly, assumed that the federal government was indebted to soldiers wounded in the line of duty.  However, the sad fact is that once a medal has been awarded, injuries that may have changed a soldier’s entire way of life are not considered the government’s problem once the soldier has been discharged.

Consider the recent increases in massive head injuries during the second Gulf Wars.  Though bake sales and fund raisers across the country have been trying to send after-market head protection to soldiers serving, it would seem that money that should be spent keeping people safe is being diverted.  The Purple Heart Car Donation Program isn’t currently sending body armor to Iraq and Afghanistan, it does support medical testing and helping veterans afford their medications.

That said, the prognosis for those with brain injuries isn’t very good.  For this reason, charities such as Purple Heart Car Donation Program have been stepping in and giving the young spouses of severely injured veterans the skills to help care for them when the VA can’t.

It is also notable that though the current Gulf Wars have not had a very high mortality rate, by the usual accounting, the flip side of that is a very high proportion of troops that have been injured in the line of duty – many of them to be sent back into action.  Though the Purple Heart Car Donation Program is only a drop in this bucket, the lives it has touched have keenly felt its presence.

For many years now, charitable non-profit organizations (NPOs) have been taking donations of household, durable, non-cash goods as well as used car donation.  This practice was adopted to increase the base of those who could be counted on for charitable gift giving to include the middle class and has been a smashing success.

However, in addition to used car donation, which may be the most commonly advertised type of giving, there are plenty of still valuable goods in most people’s homes, waiting to be put to a more charitable use.    For instance, just about anything that isn’t consumable or appears made to last for more than a few years is perfect for donation.

Consider electronic goods, for instance.  They are very similar to used car donation in that many times people don’t bother to donate them until they are well into obsolescence or broken beyond reasonable repair.  Even though most charitable NPOs regularly request only working items, that is what they end up with most times.

As with used car donation, there are companies with an educational mission, who will teach people how to rebuild and refurbish older electronic goods (especially computers), teach them how to use open source software with the newly useful machines and then send them home with a fully loaded and functional computer.

And again, just like used car doantion, this model serves only a small segment of the used computer marketplace, with most being sold to scrapyards in China to have their gold removed.  The actual value for people in your community is quite low in this scheme, so if charitable giving in your goal, it would be a good idea to check into such programs when you’re getting ready to make your donation.

Though many of the strict regulations that pertain to used car donation don’t apply in quite the same way to some other types of donated goods, recent changes have tightened up the rules for other non-cash donations that are likely to be deducted at a rate far higher than the condition-adjusted value.

This has the effect of decreasing the amount of money that one can claim from clothing and household goods (including furniture) in poor condition just as a used car dontaion of a running car doesn’t even warrant the “poor” rating in the Kelley Blue Book.  There are even now regulations on the amount and condition of donation taxidermy.

Property was the largest component of non-cash donation to charity in 2002, right after stocks.  Property is generally required to be professionally and independently appraised before it may be deducted as a charitable gift.

Other non-cash items that benefit charity in addition to used car donation, include art of whatever questionable taste you choose, as long as its in good or better condition.  Intellectual properties may also be donated, as may securities and inventories.

If there is any way someone can make money off something you’ve donated, odds are, they will.  It might be a good idea to talk to your tax preparer or CPA about whether your donation will be fully deductible.  If not, there’s probably a way that it could be made to work.  Find out.

If you’ll be claiming more than $500,000 in charitable deductions for a given year, you’ll automatically have to file some special paperwork.  Generally, just as with used car donation, the more you hope to claim as deduction for a given item or for a great many items, the more documentation you’ll need to produce to back up your claims and the more likely the IRS is to ask you about it.

And just as the changes that impacted used car donation in 2005, it is unclear what effect this change will have.  Will people continue to donate items without tax benefit or will it leave that many fewer resources for the poor and disadvantaged?  It is unclear if charities themselves have been negatively affected, much less the communities they serve.

There are quite a few reasons that people choose to use an online vehicle donation service.  For starters, there’s very little that’s as easy as filling out a form online and having your vehicle picked up the very next day without any intervening guff.  On the other hand, if you’re looking to maximize your allowable deduction, you’ll have to look further than online.  Vehicle donation is always a welcome charitable gift, but gift giving that people can really use takes a bit more effort sometimes.

Of course, the path you choose will have a great deal to do with the value of your car.  And, by value, the “fair market value” as recently clarified by the IRS, is the standard.  This means, not how much you can expect to get if your car is listed in the Kelley Blue Book as “fair” but instead, how much you could fairly get if you tried to sell the car yourself.  So, if you’d be wasting your money to ask for more than $300 for your car with the blown-up transmission and 200,000 miles then you shouldn’t claim more than that as a deductible when donating the car.

Online vehicle donation is far more prevalent (and sensible for everyone involved) when the car is already known to be of low value.  This way, when it’s sold for $50 at wholesale auction, you won’t be nearly as surprised as someone who brought in a running car with low miles.

Third-party donation agents, who are almost always for-profit companies, work for charities in most online vehicle donation operations.  This means that the amount the charity receives from the sale of your vehicle is dependent upon not only the amount received from its quick sale, but also the agreement between the agent and the charity regarding the amount of a given sale the charity must pay for services.

In fact, in some cases, the deal is such that the charity can actually end up owing these private companies money after your online vehicle donation.  If you’d like to know more about any aspect of the company that’s is facilitating online vehicle donation for the charity of your choice, it’s your right to ask, though most don’t bother.

Of course, it depends upon your motivation to contact an online vehicle donation service in the first place.  If you don’t care about a tax deduction (since it does require you to to to the extra bother of filing your return with itemized deductions) and are somewhat indifferent about supporting a charitable mission, then online vehicle donation is a good outlet for getting rid of a car, truck, RV or boat that’s become an attractive nuisance  in its disuse.

There are ways to check and see if the online vehicle donation service you’ve chosen is up to snuff.  For instance, you can double check on the charities in question.  If at any time someone is reluctant to give you the exempt tax ID number of the charity they claim to serve, then move on.  Whether done locally or online, vehicle donation (or any kind, really) requires the charity to be up-front with their non-profit status.

There are, however, plenty of online vehicle donation sites that are perfectly legitimate.  Often people choose to go with a company that gives a choice of charitable organizations.  They should freely come to pick up your vehicle within days of your contacting them.  Don’t be afraid to ask about the possibility of any fees up front.  If there are any, keep looking, as there shouldn’t be a disposal fee unless your car is radioactive.

Generally, online vehicle donation is an above-the-board, legitimate practice, since many of those operating without real charitable sponsorship were weeded out after the 2005 IRS rule changes.  These adjustments not only made it harder for companies to continue operating as they liked, without any oversight.  The rule changes have also had the effect of increasing public confidence in online vehicle donation sites.