Form 8283 is really two different forms having two different purposes. The main purpose of the first page (Section A) is to report gifts of marketable securities having a value greater than $500 and other gifts for which a “Qualified Appraisal” is not required. The main purpose of the second page (Section B) is to report gifts for which a “Qualified Appraisal” is required.

The donor (or the donor’s appraiser) is required to fill out Form 8283. The charitable donee signs Section B only for gifts reported in Section B.

You can stop reading at this point. I’ve told you everything you need to know about Form 8283. But you may find the story I’m about to tell instructive. The story involves a PG officer, who has been trained as a lawyer, who was ordered by her supervisor to fill out Form 8283 for a donor.

Question: What was wrong here?
Answer: Everything.

First, is a Form 8283 filled out by a charity’s employee any good for tax purposes?

Simple answer: No. Re-read the second paragraph.

Second, the PG officer didn’t know whether a “Qualified Appraisal” was required for the asset given to her organization. Nor did I. (I’m always short on the facts … I just couldn’t tell from the information the PG officer was able to provide me.)

Is this situation unusual? Nope. Any number of times donors or their advisers, for example, have demanded that the charitable donee sign Section B for gifts of marketable securities reported on Section A (re-read the second paragraph). This, by the way, is an invitation to the IRS to audit the donor.

How important is Form 8283? Let me put it this way: If Form 8283 isn’t filled out completely and correctly, case law teaches that the federal income tax charitable deduction to which the form pertains can be disallowed entirely. That’s important.

BTW, the 2019 Form 8283 only pertains to 2019 federal income tax returns. That’s important too. You can view the 2019 Form 8283 online.

 
By Jon Tidd

 
Sharpe Group will continue to post helpful information for you here on our blog and on our social media sites. If this blog was shared with you and you wish to sign up, you can do so at www.SHARPEnet.com/blog.

We can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn @sharpegroup.

We welcome questions you’d like us to address. Email us at info@SHARPEnet.com and we’ll share your question and our thoughts in this blog and on social media.