I usually do a short tax form but this year I donated a car?

is it worth it to me to do a long form to get the deduction for this car?

The trouble with the TV ads that encourage people to donate their cars is they all fail to mentioned one important fact. Yes it is tax deductible but here is the part that is not mentioned. You have to be able to itemized your deductions by completing a Schedule A and attached it to a 1040 form. If you are not able to have enough to itemized that you can not use your car donation. If you filed a short form last year, I doubt very seriously that you will have enough to itemized. The total of your itemized deductions has to exceed your standard deduction which is based on your filing status.

Depends on how much the deduction is. You're no longer able to deduct the value of the car; you have to wait until the donee sells it, then they give you the paperwork with the sale amount.

If it's only a few hundred dollars, I'd say skip it. However, if it's some thousands, it would be worth it to do the longer form, especially if you don't have a large income.

Not unless you have enough other deductions to get over the standard deduction of $5350 for single or $10700 for married . You have to add most deductions together to see a benefit. There are too many other factors to answer acurratly, but if you are never very close to itemizing and the car wasn't worth that much money, then you probably won't need to bother.

If the form the charity gives you showing what they sold it for, added to whatever other itemized deductions you have, is over your standard deduction, then it might be worth it, otherwise not.

If the total of your itemized deductions is only a few hundred dollars over the standard, you'd probably spend more to have someone do the schedule A for you than you'd save in taxes. If you do your taxes yourself, like with TurboTax, then it won't cost you anything extra, so you might as well do the long form if your total deductions are even a little bit over the standard.