Why Donate Your Vehicle To Us?
We Repair Many Vehicles & Repaired Vehicles Raise More Money
First we are very different than the vast majority of charities that ask for your vehicle donation. Most other charities never see your donated car. When you contact many charities you are reaching a call center in another state which takes your donation information and then relays it back to a local towing company. This tow company then takes your vehicle directly to an auction where it is sold “as is” for whatever the auction can get, without any kind of improvements, advertising or disclosures of condition and often only car dealers and wrecking yards are allowed to bid at these auctions, so vehicles frequently sell for peanuts.
We on the other hand are here in Las Vegas, we generally pick up your vehicle with our dedicated tow truck and then have one of the mechanics we work with here in town diagnosed it. Typically 99 cars out of 100 we receive require significant repair. Over the years we have established many contacts and resources to get vehicles repaired at a fraction of what the public would pay. Because repaired vehicles bring us much more revenue than problematic vehicles, we spend the money to improve about 3/4 of the vehicles we receive in some fashion, whether it is just getting them running, providing fresh paint, tires, glass, lights, or solving emission issues or mechanical and cosmetic repairs.
Only about ¼ of the vehicles we receive are not financially viable to work on and are sold to salvage yards. We really try to improve as many donations as we can because the difference in revenue can be significant. For example, a car that has very faded paint might only be worth a few hundred dollars but that same car with new paint might bring us $2,000 when sold. So even if it costs us $400 to paint that car it still potentially brings us $1,600 more revenue as compared to the $300 to $400 we might get for that car in the condition it was in when donated. And we have improved just about everything in the past; autos, aircraft, motor homes, motorcycles, boats, golf carts, large construction equipment and semi-truck tractors. Try us first, because we accept and improve more donation types than any other organization we know of. Our organization has its own local donation program and is not affiliated with any national fund raising operation, including the National Paralyzed Veterans of America vehicle donation program.
Your Tax Deduction Is Higher With Us
This donation improvement policy also makes a difference for your tax deduction. The IRS states in their flyer “A Donors Guide to Vehicle Donation, Publication #4303, (which we recommend that you consult on the IRS website) that; “Generally, if the charity sells your vehicle, your deduction is limited to the gross proceeds the charity receives from its sale.” They do NOT require that you take into account the money we spend on improving your donation, so if we sell your vehicle for $2,000 you can take an itemized deduction for $2,000, regardless if we spend $4 or $400 to improve it. Many donors are shocked at the deductions we are able to get them for their previously unattractive, problematic cars and they call in to tell us so.
With the advent of the Wuhan virus and government shut down we were no longer able to maintain our sales lot on Boulder Highway, there simply weren't enough donations coming in to support that overhead, so we now sell our donated vehicles through a public auction, the Nellis Auction, which is not limited to just dealers, anyone can bid. Plus we don't rely on solely the auction advertising to sell our donations, we advertise our vehicles on this and other websites to drive buyers to our vehicles. Because we seek to improve your donations, promote their sale in several ways, and sell through a public auction and not a 'dealer only' auction, we often obtain double the sales price, or more than that the vehicles might bring if we just sold them like other charities do.
You Never Have To “Guestimate” The Deduction Amount Yourself
There is no “Guestimating” the fair market value of your donation yourself as recommended by some other charities. By selling your repaired vehicle to the public there is ZERO debate as to its value, the IRS will not challenge the sale price method of valuation. And in those rare instances where an appraisal is necessary such as with year-end or high value donations, we will provide you an appraisal/deduction value at our expense.
Once we sell your vehicle we will send you an IRS form 1098c showing the sale price, so long as we have all the required information. From our experience and comments from donors who donated to other charities, the vast majority of vehicles donated to other charities receive a donation receipt in the mail limiting the deduction to $500 largely because that requires much less paperwork from the charity, only a simple donation receipt. We go the extra mile to fill out and send you the 1098c for vehicles sold above $500, (so long as we have all IRS required info) and most vehicles we sell go for over $500.
Immediate Donation Receipt When we pick up the Vehicle
You get a donation receipt from us immediately at the time we pick up the vehicle, no waiting for it to come in the mail. We often receive calls from donors to other charities who have not received their donation receipt in the mail a month or six weeks after donation. We have to tell them “Sorry that wasn’t us!”
Release Of Liability And Report Of Sale To The DMV
With the donation receipt we give you at the time of pick up you have immediate proof that the vehicle was transferred to us and that you are no longer responsible for the car, so it is important that you retain the donation receipt in your records.
You may take or mail a copy of our donation receipt with your license plates to the DMV and they will note the transfer and give or mail you a surrender receipt. The DMV also addresses donating a vehicle to charity on their website under the frequently asked questions section where they state that you may use the MyDMV Registration Cancellation & Vehicle Resale Notification link to register the transfer on line. Either method should remove the vehicle from your name. We can also drop off your plates to the local DMV for you, we are glad to do that and most people choose that option but the DMV will not give us the surrender receipt, that can only be given to registered owners due to Nevada's privacy laws, still if we take your plates to the DMV the registration is immediately canceled in their records. But again to remove the vehicle from your name you should either visit the DMV, register the transfer on-line or mail in the plates with a copy of our donation receipt.
License Plate Turn In And Insurance Cancellation
You can cancel your insurance immediately after receiving our donation receipt from us on the day of donation. You may also report the transfer on the DMV website but the release of liability is not complete until the plates are turned in and the DMV allows 60 days for that (30 days for specialty plates). Or you have 60 days to transfer the plates to your next vehicle if the registration is still valid and not expired.
You do get credit for the unused portion of the registration towards the new registration of your next vehicle if you transfer your plates, which could save you substantial money depending on the time left on your current tags. Once you sign the title over and we give you the donation receipt at the time of pick up, the car is ours and covered by our insurance so your insurance can be canceled. Do you really want to wait 4-6 weeks for your donation receipt to come in the mail from some other charity or maybe not come at all and you have to make phone calls to track it down while still paying for insurance on your car? We hear that story a lot.
All Of Our Operations Support Local Vets, Workers And Businesses
All of our operations are located here in Nevada so we support local vets with the funds raised. We support local businesses who provide repairs and parts and we hire local workers in our operations. Do you really want the revenue from your donation to go to a company in Florida, Michigan, California or some other state, or would your rather support local veterans, businesses and workers?
Good Question. Our Primary goal is to improve the quality of life for veterans with spinal cord disabilities and then disabled veterans in general. To that end we:
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Deliver food including fresh produce to an average of 130 disabled Veterans a month..
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Fund 3 scholarships for the children of Npva Member veterans to attend college,Plus Fund Scholarships For 2-4 Nevada VA Spinal Cord Clinic Nurses.
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Assist veterans with VA claim filing and securing benefits here in Nevada.We Have A Full Time Staff Member For Just This Purpose.
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Provide medical equipment such as scooters, replacement batteries and ramps to veterans at no cost to them.
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Sponsor social and sporting events to encourage involvement, camaraderie and physical fitness and reduce isolation.
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Sponsor wheel chair basketball teams, youth Paralympics and military sports camp.
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Since 2006 Our Program Has Been Of Great Benefit To Many Low Income Disabled Veterans Here In Nevada We Hope You Will Help Us Continued That Tradition.
