Donate Cell Phone
I don’t know about you, but I go through cell phones every six months or so. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to donate a cell phone to help out various groups.
Donate Cell Phone
If you’re looking to get a tax deduction, you must donate a cell phone to an eligible organization. To determine if an organization is eligible, you must find out if they are registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charity. Nearly every charity is. Ask them or look for the designation on their signs, receipts or paperwork.
When you donate a cell phone to a charity, you can claim a tax deduction. The deduction is equivalent to the price you paid minus 20 percent for each year of use. The IRS hasn’t really clarified how the value is arrived at, so make sure to discuss it with your tax professional. Also, make sure you get a receipt for your cell phone donation in case the IRS comes calling.
If you’re not concerned with getting a tax deduction for your donation, there are some pretty interesting donation programs. One is run by Motorola.
The “race to recycle” program benefits schools when you donate a cell phone to it. Schools receive $3.00 for every phone. While this may not seem like a lot, millions of cell phones are thrown away each year. If even ten percent of them are donated to schools, the money paid by Motorola would really help out. Verizon and other cell phone businesses have similar donation programs.
There is another very important reason to donate a cell phone to charity instead of throwing it out. The components of a cell phone have a lot of materials that are very harmful to the environment. With millions being thrown into the garbage each year, there are growing concerns regarding the impact all of the hard metals going into garbage dumps. Donate a cell phone and you won’t have to worry about it.