How to Donate a Car in California
The process of donating a car in California is quite easy. First you need to find out a charitable organization and make a call to them to pick up your car or other vehicle that you would like to donate. As there are lots of frauds organizations are also there in California, you need to be cautious while choosing the right charitable organization. In this article I am sharing some useful tips that can provide you the right direction to choose the right organization to donate your car in California.
Steps Involved in Donating a Car in California
As per the guidelines of Internal Revenue Service (IRS), one should consider the following points while donating a car.
- Investigate and gather the information about the organization to which you are planning to donate your car or any other vehicle. Browse through their website and collect the information.
- Find out how much tax benefit that you are getting from that particular organization. You must find out whether that organization is qualified to receive your donation under 501(c) (3).
- Find out the approximate value of your car and tell it to the organization you are donating to.
- Ask from the organization about any other such things required or other responsibilities that you have to complete the process of car donation.
- Ask them how they use your car and where it will move after donation.
- Ask them if they sell your car to any other person or organization than how would they use your money.
- Ask them which charity or donation program they are running.
- Also check out the ratings of the charity organization. A lower rating means that most of the part of your money will go toward administrative costs and only few of your money will go to the services or donation programs to which you want to support.
Finding a Charity Organization for Car Donation
You can choose the organization of your choice but be sure that whatever organization you are choosing is recognized by IRS. If you donate your car to unrecognized organization you will not get any type of tax benefit. You can also check the list of verified and cumulative list of organizations of IRS. The religious organizations are also eligible for receiving donation and they are not listed in IRS cumulative qualified list. You can also get information through Better business bureau (BBB) in your area.
If you still unable to decide you can check Forbes ranks Americas top 200 charity organizations. It is also worth to note here that every charity organization listed here at Forbes not accepting car donations, you need to find out by calling them that whether they are accepting car donations or not.
One can also collect the list of car charity organizations on the IRS website.
Additionally, you can search for charities and tax-exempt organizations on the IRS website.
