The tow-away tax break
mi...@mail.be
href="http://www.donate-cars.info/index.php">http://www.donate-cars.info/index.php</a></font></u></p>
The tow-away tax break: why car donation programs benefit everyone but
the charities they're intended to help
Tyler Cabot
PERHAPS YOU'VE SEEN THE FLYERS or heard the ads on the radio: Donate
your used car to charity and we'll arrive at your home, arrange the
title transfer, and tow away your old clunker, giving the proceeds to
your favorite charity. Over the past few years, hundreds of popular
charities have launched such programs as a way to raise money,
including the Red Cross, MADD, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Easter Seals,
and the United Way. To most people, it sounds like a great deal.
Getting rid of an old car is a hassle. Giving it to charity, on the
other hand, leaves you with a warm feeling--and a nice tax deduction,
too, since the government allows those who donate a used car to deduct
its full "fair-market value." So it's no surprise that car donation
drives are increasingly popular, especially with civic-minded
upper-middleclass types. Who ever said coddled yuppies don't have
hearts?
Unfortunately, there's a catch, though you're unlikely to hear about it
from television ads, phone operators, or tow-truck drivers. Just
because Uncle Sam gives you a $1,000 tax deduction for donating your
car doesn't mean that Easter Seals will receive a check in the same
amount. The problem with car donation programs is that most of the
benefits accrue not to the charity, but to the person who donates a
car. So popular are these programs that I didn't have to look far for
an example to demonstrate how badly they're flawed. In early March, the
editor-in-chief of this magazine, Paul Glastris, bid farewell to his
broken-down 1991 Volkswagen Jetta, and donated it to the good folks at
the American Cancer Society. Like millions of Americans, Paul liked the
idea of helping a charity, and didn't mind the tax break, either. The
Jetta was, he admits, "undrivable." It had a burned-out engine, more
rust that Michael Jordan's knees, and "what you might call
`ever-expanding head and leg room'--the interior molding was
perpetually disintegrating onto the passengers and driver," he told me.
Paul's mechanic told him that the car was junk.
<p><u><font SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000ff"><a
href="http://www.donate-cars.info/index.php">http://www.donate-cars.info/index.php</a></font></u></p>