Planning to Donate a Vehicle Before Year-End for Tax Deduction? Edmunds.com Advises Consumers How to Survive an Automotive Audit
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 8, 2003 -- As 2003 comes to a close, many people are looking for last minute tax deductions. One popular way to achieve this is to donate an old car to charity. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is paying close attention to the value placed on donated vehicles. Edmunds.com ( http://www.edmunds.com/ ), the premier online resource for automotive information, offers pricing tools that can help in the process of deducting a vehicle.
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"Taxpayers who itemize deductions on their tax returns can deduct, within limits, the fair market value of their contributions to qualified charities," states the IRS document entitled "IRS and State Charity Officials Urge Care When Making a Car Donation." The document goes on to warn, "The fair market value of the taxpayer's car may be substantially different from the 'Blue Book' value."
According to IRS Publication 561 entitled "Determining the Value of Donated Property," "Fair market value is the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither having to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of all the relevant facts."
The Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) (TMV(R)) automotive pricing tools were developed to provide this type of information, serving as the industry's best guide to market value pricing and the only pricing system designed with the consumer in mind.
"Edmunds.com's True Market Value is what you would expect to pay or receive for your vehicle given current market conditions, taking into account the full range of criteria such as accessories, mileage and condition, just as the IRS suggests," said Bob Kurilko, Vice President of Marketing and Industry Communications for Edmunds.com.
The TMV Used Vehicle Appraiser ( http://www.edmunds.com/products/tmv/ ) asks for specific facts about each vehicle, then provides a valuation report. The report may be of use in preparing your return and it is a good practice to keep it with your tax papers in the event of an audit. As with all tax matters, you should always consult a certified tax advisor.
The Used Vehicle Appraiser presents each user with three sets of TMV prices representing the three types of used vehicle transactions: dealer trade-in (what you should expect to receive from the dealer as a trade-in), dealer retail (what you should expect to pay a dealer for this vehicle), and private party (what you should expect to pay or receive in a private party transaction). Kurilko suggests that taxpayers take all three values to their certified tax advisor when determining their deductions.
Check http://www.edmunds.com/advice/selling/articles/42975/article.html for more information on donating your vehicle to charity.
About Edmunds.com
Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is generated by Edmunds Data Services and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies over 800,000 pages of content for AOL's auto channel and NYTimes.com's auto section and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM) and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and maintains a satellite office in Troy, Michigan.
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