Cash for Junk Car?

[tomscholfield.livejournal.com]

Anyone ever used those Cash for Junk Car Services? I am considering it, we have a car that needs too many repairs and we are not sure if we should donate and take it off of our taxes or simply get one of these Cash for Car services to come by and take it away.

Any opinions?

Comments

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

We had someone come and pick up our junk car, and a month later we got a call that our car had been "abandoned" in Brockton, and they wanted us to pay for impounding and towing fees! We had to fax in a bunch of paperwork to prove that we had relinquished the car to someone else, and it was a tremendous PITA.

Donate it to someone reputable!

[nuns.livejournal.com]

Lots of charities will accept your junk car and give you a receipt for blue book as though it ran. Some of them will even come pick the car up. Not sure if they still do it, but the National Kidney Foundation is the group I called back in the day. Since then, lots of other organizations have started doing the same thing.

[sapphira-altair.livejournal.com]

I donated my old car to Habitat for Humanity - they arranged to pick it up (I didn't have to be there for them to pick it up) and gave me a donation receipt. I barely had to do anything. The tax write-off was worth it, IMO.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

http://www.helpinghandsofamerica.org/ takes donation cars; I've *bought* cars from them before (they have a lot down near the stadium in Foxboro), but I haven't tried donating one so I don't know what sort of receipts/tax benefit you get for it; at the very least, you're helping out their charitable works. They're worth a look.

[sharkthunder.livejournal.com]

www.junkacar.com is a great place if your'e considering the cash alternative

[laryu.livejournal.com]

If you choose the donation route, be aware that the IRS rules are a bit tighter than they were in the past. The basic rule is if the charity sells the car, you can only deduct the proceeds from the actual sale (and the charity should provide you with that receipt after the sale). If the charity uses the car, then you can deduct the fair market value. And there is an additional form to file with your tax return, for in-kind donations over $500, on which you demonstrate how you calculated fair market value.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

Don't most charities want your car to be driveable? I had a junk car guy take away my undriveable car a few years ago, but I don't remember who it was.