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Donate Your TimeshareAn option to selling your timeshare is to donate it to charity. There are a number of charitable organizations interested in timeshare units as a way to raise money for their causes.
Many people have the false impression that donating their timeshare to charity will result in a tax benefit greater than what they could get for the timeshare on the open market. While there may be limited instances where this is true, as a general guideline you'll receive more money for your timeshare selling it yourself rather than donating it to a charity.
The one big exception to this is if you have to spend a lot of money in fees / commissions and advertisements to sell your timeshare. Advertising your timeshare can significantly reduce the amount of money you see from the sale of your timeshare resort unit.
While selling the timeshare yourself will likely mean more money for you in the end, there are some appealing aspects to donating the timeshare rather than trying to sell it yourself.
The advantages of donating your timeshare to a charitable organization are:
No Upfront Costs To You: Most charities don't charge a fee when you donate a timeshare. If you sell on your own, you will have to pay for a variety of services such as advertising, legal fees and reseller fees / commissions.
Quick: The process is taken care of in a quick manner (usually totally completed within a few months). This means that you don't have to continue to pay maintenance fees, taxes and special assessments while the timeshare sits on the market for awhile.
Tax Write-off: While the tax write off won't generally result in as much money for you as if you sold the timeshare yourself, you will still be able to claim the fair market value of the timeshare against your taxes.
Few Hassles: Since the charity will take care of the transfer process for you, the hassles of taking care of this on your own are solved.
Time: Selling a timeshare on your own can take a lot of time and energy. You save this when you donate to a charity.
When making a donation to charity, you will need the following information to ensure a smooth transfer of the timeshare to the charity:
The name, address, and phone number of the resort
The deed or certificate
The contract or membership agreement
The financing agreement, if you're still paying for the property
The information to identify your interest or membership
The exchange company affiliation
The amount and due date of your maintenance fee
The amount of real estate taxes, if billed separately
By having all this information, it will speed up the process of the timeshare transfer. While most charities will work with you if you're missing some of the information above, it can cause delays in getting the transfer completed.
You are allowed to deduct the "Fair Market Value" of the timeshare on your taxes if you itemize your tax return. Once the transfer of ownership of your timeshare to the charity is complete, your chosen charity will send you a receipt as proof of your donation. The receipt usually will not have a value on it - the fair market value is determined by you and your tax preparer, but you must get an appraisal for the timeshare if you decide to claim the fair market value of the timeshare above $5,000. Note that appraisals for timeshares can be quite expensive with most costing more than $500. If you need to get an appraisal for tax purposes, get it in writing that the appraiser will guarantee their appraisal amount for the timeshare in tax court. You can more information regarding charitable donations at the IRS Website (View charitable donation information in HTML format).
Timeshare owners also frequently want to know if they can donate the use of the timeshare for one week to charity. This tax question usually arises when for some reason the timeshare owner is unable to use or rent out their week and will lose it. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service doesn't allow a deduction for a gift of "right to use" a timeshare property.
Please read our DisclaimerPrevious: Introduction | Next: Charities Accepting Timeshares
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