Is donating a car tax deductible?
If you itemize. When the charity sells the car for more than $500, you deduct what it sold for, not its guide value. When it sells for $500 or less, you deduct its fair market value up to $500.
The rule
Most charities sell the cars they are given. If the sale brings in more than $500, your deduction is the smaller of what it sold for and what the car was worth when you gave it. A car a used-car guide puts at $6,000 that sells for $2,900 is a $2,900 deduction.
If it sells for $500 or less, you deduct its fair market value up to $500.
You can deduct the full fair market value only if the charity uses the car significantly or improves it before selling, or gives or sells it well below value to a person in need. The charity’s form says whether either applies. A sale at auction never counts as selling to a person in need.
Fair market value is a used-car guide’s private-party price for the same car in the same condition, not the dealer’s retail price.
- Without itemizing
- No
- If you itemize
- Usually what the charity sold it for
- What to keep
- Form 1098-C, attached to the return with Form 8283 when the deduction is over $500.
- Watch for
- You must attach Form 1098-C from the charity (or a statement with the same information) to your return, or there is no deduction. It is due to you within 30 days of the sale.
- Cars, like all gifts that aren’t money, don’t count toward the $1,000 deduction without itemizing.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 526, Charitable Contributions and Publication 4303, A Donor’s Guide to Vehicle Donation. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
Federal tax only. States set their own rules for gifts.
Keep every gift with its receipt.
From 2026, up to $1,000 of cash gifts counts even without itemizing. Reimburse keeps each gift with the charity’s receipt, asks for the paper the IRS wants, and shows what it puts back.