Can a non-profit donate a vehicle to itself?
Transactions where a charity appears to donate an asset to itself create confusion about IRS prohibitions and proper classification. This makes it difficult to determine how to legally handle vehicle sales and proceeds when the organization owns and transfers the asset internally.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Treating the action as a simple asset sale or exchange transaction rather than a donation
- 2Recording standard journal entries such as debiting cash and crediting the vehicle asset
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The charity owns the vehicle. The charity is donating to the vehicle to be sold for charity proceeds which they are donating to itself.”source ↗
Specialist_Jelly888 · r/Accounting · 3 upvotes
“I ask because a charity is donating a vehicle to itself. I wonder if the IRS prohibits this.”source ↗
blue2lips · r/Accounting
Where this came up
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