How to Fill Out and File Form 8283: Appraisals, Sections, and Filing

If your noncash charitable contributions for the year add up to more than $500, you report them to the IRS on Form 8283 and attach it to your income tax return. Here is how to fill out Form 8283 correctly: pick the right section based on what you gave and what it was worth, describe each item with the detail the form asks for, get a qualified appraisal and two signatures if any item or group of similar items is worth more than $5,000, and attach the form (plus any required appraisal or Form 1098-C) to the return for the year you first claim the deduction.

When You Need to File Form 8283

The trigger is a total, not a per-item figure. Add up every noncash gift you made during the year — clothing, furniture, a car, stock, real estate, artwork, anything other than cash, checks, or electronic transfers. If the combined deduction you plan to claim tops $500, Form 8283 is required, even if the items went to different charities.¹

A second threshold matters for grouping. The IRS treats “similar items of property” as a single donation for valuation purposes: coin collections, paintings, books, clothing, jewelry, nonpublicly traded stock, land, or buildings. If your combined deduction for everything in one such category exceeds $5,000, the stricter Section B rules apply to the whole group, even when no single item hits $5,000 on its own.¹

Choosing Section A or Section B

The dollar test is simple for most donations. Section A covers items and groups of similar items with a claimed deduction of $5,000 or less. Section B covers anything above that. But four categories stay in Section A no matter how large the deduction:¹

Publicly traded securities — exchange-listed stocks, over-the-counter securities regularly traded with published quotations, and mutual fund shares with daily published prices.
Vehicles, boats, and airplanes where your deduction is limited to the charity’s gross sale proceeds and you received Form 1098-C.
Intellectual property such as patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
Inventory — property held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business.

Everything else worth more than $5,000 goes on Section B, which means an appraisal and two signatures.

Filling Out Section A

Section A applies to donations above $500 but not more than $5,000, plus the special categories listed above. For each donated item or group, Part I of Section A asks for:

The donee’s full legal name and physical address.
A description detailed enough that a reader unfamiliar with the item would know what it is. For a car, give the make, model, year, and mileage; for clothing or household goods, the type and condition.
The date you handed over or shipped the property.
The date you originally acquired it.
How you acquired it — purchase, gift, inheritance, or exchange.
Your cost or adjusted basis, adjusted for any depreciation or improvements.
The fair market value on the date of donation.
The method you used to determine that value, such as a thrift shop guide, comparable sales listings, or a dealer quote.

No appraisal is required for Section A, but keep records that support the values you claimed. Clothing and household items must be in good used condition or better to qualify for a deduction at all. The one workaround: you can deduct a single clothing or household item in less-than-good condition if you attach a qualified appraisal and the claimed value exceeds $500.²

Filling Out Section B

Section B is where deductions get lost. You need three pieces in place before filing: a qualified appraisal, the appraiser’s signed declaration on the form, and the charity’s signed acknowledgment on the form.

The Qualified Appraisal

A qualified appraisal has to be prepared by someone with documented education and experience valuing the specific type of property you donated, following generally accepted appraisal standards — in practice, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.³

Timing is strict. The appraiser must sign and date the appraisal no earlier than 60 days before you make the contribution, and you must have the appraisal in hand no later than the due date of the return (including extensions) on which you first claim the deduction.⁴ Too early, it doesn’t count. Too late, the deduction can be denied.

The appraiser’s fee can never be based on a percentage of the appraised value. That arrangement alone disqualifies the appraisal.

The Parts You Complete

Use a separate copy of Section B for each item, except where items belong to a group of similar property. The relevant parts:

Part I, Information on Donated Property: describe the property, list the appraised fair market value, and give the contribution date, acquisition date, your cost or adjusted basis, and the valuation method.
Part IV, Declaration of Appraiser: the appraiser signs, certifying their qualifications, that the fee was not tied to a percentage of value, and that they understand the overstatement penalty.
Part V, Donee Acknowledgment: an authorized representative of the charity signs, confirming receipt and the organization’s qualified status.

Both signatures need to be on the form when you file. A missing signature is grounds for the IRS to deny the whole deduction.¹

When to Attach the Appraisal Itself

For most Section B donations, keep the appraisal in your files and do not send it in. The IRS requires the full signed appraisal to travel with the return in these situations:⁴

Art valued at $20,000 or more.
Any item or group of similar items with a claimed deduction over $500,000. Skipping the appraisal disallows the deduction unless you can show reasonable cause.⁵
A single clothing or household item claimed above $500 that is not in good used condition.
Easements on certified historic structures, along with photographs and supporting documentation.

Rules for the Property You’re Most Likely Donating

Cars, Boats, and Airplanes

A vehicle donation worth more than $500 pulls in a second form. The charity must issue you Form 1098-C within 30 days of selling the vehicle, or within 30 days of the contribution if it plans to keep or improve the vehicle. Your deduction is generally capped at the charity’s actual gross sale proceeds — not Kelley Blue Book — unless the charity uses the vehicle in its operations or transfers it to a needy individual at below-market price.⁶

Attach Copy B of Form 1098-C to your return. If you e-file, attach it as a PDF, or mail it in with Form 8453. Leaving out Form 1098-C causes an automatic denial of the deduction.⁷

Publicly Traded Securities

Stocks and mutual fund shares with daily published prices go on Section A whatever they’re worth. No appraisal is needed, because the market price on the contribution date sets fair market value. Report the security name, the CUSIP number if you have it, the number of shares, and the fair market value on the date of the gift.

Art

Art follows standard Section B rules below $20,000: qualified appraisal, Parts I, IV, and V completed, appraisal kept in your records. At $20,000 and above, the full signed appraisal must be attached to the return. Valuations at that level get real scrutiny, so accurate documentation matters.

How to Attach and File the Form

Attach Form 8283 to your income tax return — Form 1040 for individuals — for the year you make the contribution and first claim the deduction.¹ Paper filers place Form 8283 directly behind the return. Electronic filers attach the signed form as a PDF through their tax software; if the software doesn’t support PDF attachments, mail the signed form with Form 8453 as a paper transmittal.⁸ A form without the required signatures is treated as incomplete.

If a partnership or S corporation you’re in made the donation, you attach the entity’s Form 8283 to your personal return along with your own Form 8283 reporting your share. When multiple pass-through entities sit between you and the donating entity, include each entity’s Form 8283 in the chain.¹ Never write “available upon request” on any line; the IRS treats that as an incomplete filing.

One boundary worth knowing: Form 8283 reports what you gave, but the amount you can actually deduct on Schedule A is capped by percentages of your adjusted gross income (60% for cash, 30% for capital gain property deducted at fair market value, and 30% for contributions “for the use of” a charity). Excess amounts carry forward up to five years, and when you claim a carryover you must attach a copy of the original year’s Form 8283 (and appraisal, if one was required).⁵

What Happens After You File

The Charity’s Follow-Up: Form 8282

If the charity sells, exchanges, or disposes of Section B property within three years of receiving it, it must file Form 8282 with the IRS and send you a copy. This covers donated property with a claimed value above $5,000, other than cash and publicly traded securities. The charity is not required to file Form 8282 if you certified on Form 8283 that the item’s appraised value was $500 or less, or if it consumed or distributed the item for its charitable purpose without getting anything in return.⁹

A Form 8282 showing a sale price well below your claimed fair market value creates a paper trail the IRS may follow back to your appraisal.

Penalties for Overstating Value

Accuracy-related penalties apply on a sliding scale. Claiming 150% or more of the correct value is a substantial valuation misstatement and carries a 20% penalty on the underpayment. Claiming 200% or more is a gross misstatement and the penalty doubles to 40%.¹⁰

Relief is available for reasonable cause and good faith. The IRS weighs the effort you made to report the correct value, how complex the valuation was, whether you relied on a competent tax advisor, and whether you gave that advisor all the relevant information. A qualified appraisal from a credentialed professional is the strongest defense.¹¹

Recordkeeping

Hold onto copies of Form 8283, the qualified appraisal, the charity’s acknowledgment letter, photographs of the donated property, and any receipts for at least three years after you file the return claiming the deduction. If you carry unused deductions forward, the clock resets: keep the records for three years from the date you file the return for the last carryover year. Because the IRS has six years to challenge a return where it suspects more than 25% of gross income was omitted, longer retention is a sensible precaution for large donations.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8283
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property
3
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.170A-17 – Qualified Appraisal and Qualified Appraiser
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8283
5
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 526, Charitable Contributions
6
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1098-C
7
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1098-C, Contributions of Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes
8
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax Transmittal for an IRS e-file Return
9
Internal Revenue Service. Donee Information Return
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments
11
Internal Revenue Service. Penalty Relief for Reasonable Cause