Updated October 16, 2026. Quick answer: Form 8283 reports noncash charitable gifts, and the instructions say “You must file one or more Forms 8283 if the amount of your deduction for each noncash contribution is more than $500.” Section A covers items with a deduction of $5,000 or less and publicly traded securities. Section B covers more than $5,000 and needs a qualified appraisal, a signed appraiser declaration and a signed donee acknowledgment.
Related reading on this site: IRS Publication 561.
Related reading on this site: IRS Publication 526.
Read box by box from the IRS form text: Form 1098-C boxes 1 to 3 and Form 1098-C boxes 6a to 7.
Form lines read one part at a time: Form 8283 Section B Part I, Form 8283 Section B Part II and Form 8283 Section B Parts III to V.
S corporation return (Form 1120-S) for 2025, read line by line: Form 1120-S Schedule K lines 11 to 13.
Partnership return (Form 1065) for 2025, read line by line: Form 1065 Schedule K lines 12 to 14 and Form 1065 Schedule K lines 15 to 21.
Schedule A and Schedule B (Form 1040) for 2025, read line by line: Schedule A line 11, Schedule A lines 13 and 14 and Schedule A line 17.
Who has to file Form 8283
The instructions open with the purpose: “Use Form 8283 to report information about noncash charitable contributions.” They also say what does not belong on it: “Do not use Form 8283 to report out-of-pocket expenses for volunteer work or amounts you gave by check or credit card.” “Treat these items as cash contributions.” The form itself puts the threshold in its first line: “Attach one or more Forms 8283 to your tax return if you claimed a total deduction of over $500 for all contributed property.”
The filing rule has two parts. First, “You must file one or more Forms 8283 if the amount of your deduction for each noncash contribution is more than $500.” Second, “You must also file Form 8283 if you have a group of similar items for which a total deduction of over $500 is claimed.” The amount that counts is set before the next step: “Make any required reductions to the amount of the contributions before you determine if you must file Form 8283.”
On timing, “File Form 8283 with your tax return for the year you contribute the property and first claim a deduction.” “Also file Form 8283 for any carryover year described in section 170(d).” The Reminders box on the first page adds a completeness warning: “The failure to fully complete either of these two sections may result in an incomplete filing of Form 8283.”
Section A or Section B
The form is split by size and by type of property. Here are the two sections as the instructions and the form describe them:
| Part of the form | What goes there | What else the form says |
|---|---|---|
| Section A | “Use Section A to report donations of property for which you claimed a deduction of $5,000 or less per item or group of similar items (defined later).” | “Also list publicly traded securities and certain other property even if the deduction is more than $5,000.” |
| Section B | “Use Section B to report donations of property for which you claimed a deduction of more than $5,000 per item or group of similar items.” | “Items reportable in Section B require a written qualified appraisal by a qualified appraiser.” |
The word group matters. “Similar items of property are items of the same general category or type, such as coin collections, paintings, books, clothing, jewelry, nonpublicly traded stock, land, or buildings.” “In figuring whether your deduction for a group of similar items was more than $5,000, consider all items in the group, even if items in the group were donated to more than one donee organization.” “However, you must file a separate Form 8283, Section B, for each donee organization.”
The instructions give a worked example with books: “You claimed a deduction of $2,000 for books you gave to your local city college, $2,500 for books you gave to your local state university, and $900 for books you gave to an out-of-state university.” The three amounts add up to more than $5,000, so the result is Section B for all of it, with one form per college. A separate case is a single damaged household item: “You must file Form 8283, Section B, if you are contributing a single article of clothing or household item that is not in good used condition or better and for which you are claiming a deduction of over $500.”
Publicly traded securities, vehicles and other special cases
Securities get their own rule. “For donations of publicly traded securities in any amount, you should only use Section A.” The instructions define the term: “A security is generally considered to be publicly traded if the security is (a) listed on a recognized stock exchange whose quotations are published daily; (b) regularly traded on a national or regional over-the-counter market; or (c) quoted daily in a national newspaper of general circulation in the case of mutual fund shares.” Privately held stock is a different category: “Nonpublicly traded securities may include, but are not limited to, privately held stock or shares in an entity such as an S corporation or a C corporation, privately held Limited Liability Company (LLC) membership, or privately held partnership interest.”
Vehicles are handled with a donee document. “If you donate a qualified vehicle with a claimed value of more than $500, you cannot claim a deduction unless you attach to Form 8283 a copy of the contemporaneous written acknowledgment you received from the donee organization.” “The donee organization may use Copy B of Form 1098-C, Contributions of Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes, as the acknowledgment.”
Appraisals and qualified appraisers
Section B turns on the appraisal. “Form 8283 is an appraisal summary. It is not an appraisal.” “A separate, qualified appraisal is required for any gift of property valued in excess of $5,000.” For the standard, the instructions say “The appraisal must be prepared by a qualified appraiser (defined later) in accordance with the substance and principles of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, as developed by the Appraisal Standards Board of the Appraisal Foundation.” A page on the charitable appraisal requirement covers the planning side.
The timing rules are specific. “The appraisal must be signed and dated by a qualified appraiser not earlier than 60 days before the date you contribute the property.” “You must receive the appraisal before the due date (including extensions) of the return on which you first claim a deduction for the property.” One more limit on the fee: “Appraisal fees cannot be based on a percentage of the appraised value.”
The definition of a qualified appraiser is a list: “A qualified appraiser is an individual who meets all the following requirements as of the date the individual completes and signs the appraisal.” One path is a designation: “Has earned a recognized appraiser designation from a generally recognized professional appraiser organization for demonstrated competency in valuing the type of property being appraised”. The other is education plus experience: “Has met certain minimum education requirements and has 2 or more years of experience in valuing the type of property being appraised.” In both cases, “The individual regularly prepares appraisals for which they are paid.”
The five parts of Section B and the donee acknowledgment
Section B is organized in parts, and each has a different signer or purpose:
| Section B part | Heading on the form | What the instructions say |
|---|---|---|
| Part I | “Information on Donated Property” | “You must get a written qualified appraisal from a qualified appraiser before completing Part I.” |
| Part II | “Partial Interests and Restricted Use Property” | Complete lines 4a through 4e only if you contributed less than the entire interest in property listed in Section B, Part I. |
| Part III | “Taxpayer (Donor) Statement” | “Complete Section B, Part III, for each item included in Section B, Part I, that has an appraised value of $500 or less.” |
| Part IV | “Declaration of Appraiser” | “In addition, the appraiser must complete Part IV of Form 8283.” |
| Part V | “Donee Acknowledgment” | “The donee organization that received the property described in Part I of Section B must complete and sign the Donee Acknowledgment in Part V.” |
The order of signatures matters in practice. “Before submitting Section B of Form 8283 to the donee for acknowledgment, complete at least your name, identifying number, and description of the donated property (line 3, column (a)).” “After completing Part V, the organization must return Form 8283 to you, the donor.” “You must give a copy of Section B of this form to the donee organization.”
The form’s own acknowledgment text limits what the signature means: “This acknowledgment does not represent agreement with the claimed fair market value.” It also records a conditional duty for the donee: if the donee sells, exchanges, or otherwise disposes of the property (or any portion of it) within 3 years after the date of receipt, “it will file Form 8282, Donee Information Return, with the IRS and give the donor a copy of that form.”
Value, reductions, the 30% and 50% wording and what happens if the form is wrong
The only place the instructions use the 30% and 50% figures is a reduction bullet: “You choose the 50% limit instead of the special 30% limit for capital gain property given to 50% limit organizations.” A second bullet mentions foundations: “The capital gain property is contributed to certain private nonoperating foundations.” “This rule does not apply to qualified appreciated stock.” For how the income limits work, the instructions point elsewhere: “The carryover rules are explained in Pub. 526.” Related pages on this site include the charitable deduction 35 percent cap and giving appreciated stock to a donor advised fund.
The edition read for this page is Form 8283 and its instructions, both marked Rev. December 2025, as archived for this kit. A later revision can change the line layout, the thresholds and the attachment rules, so check the revision printed on the form you are filing. The instructions are marked “Instructions for Form 8283 (Rev. 12-2025) Catalog Number 62730R” and say “Information about any future developments affecting Form 8283 (such as legislation enacted after we release it) will be posted at IRS.gov/Form8283.”
Every Form 8283 section page in one table
Each row links to the page that reads a part, section or line group of Form 8283. The right column is the summary each page carries.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Form 8283 Section A: Line 1 Columns (a) to (i), Line by Line | Form 8283 Section A line by line: columns (a) to (i) for noncash gifts of $5,000 or less and publicly traded securities. |
| Form 8283 Section B Part I: Lines 2 and 3, Line by Line | Form 8283 Section B Part I line by line: the line 2 property-type boxes and line 3 columns (a) to (i) for gifts over $5,000, with the instructions’ wording. |
| Form 8283 Section B Part II: Lines 4 and 5, Line by Line | Form 8283 Section B Part II line by line: lines 4a to 4e for partial interests and 5a to 5c for restricted use property, with the instructions’ wording. |
| Form 8283 Section B Parts III to V: Donor, Appraiser, Donee | Form 8283 Section B Parts III to V line by line: the donor statement, the declaration of appraiser and the donee acknowledgment, with the instructions’ wording. |
Common mistakes
- Putting publicly traded stock in Section B because the value is over $5,000. The instructions say “For donations of publicly traded securities in any amount, you should only use Section A.”
- Treating the form as the appraisal. The instructions say “Form 8283 is an appraisal summary. It is not an appraisal.” The qualified appraisal is a separate document that has to be signed and dated in the window the instructions set.
- Using one Section B for gifts to several charities. The instructions say “However, you must file a separate Form 8283, Section B, for each donee organization.”
Related: charitable appraisal requirement, donor advised fund and appreciated stock, charitable deduction 35 percent cap, and charitable giving.
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Answer againSources
- Form 8283 (Rev. December 2025), Noncash Charitable Contributions: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8283.pdf
- Instructions for Form 8283 (Rev. December 2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8283.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 16, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.