What is Form 8283?
Form 8283 (Noncash Charitable Contributions) is an IRS form you must attach to your tax return when you donate property (not cash) worth more than $500 to charity.
Filing threshold: Form 8283 is required when ANY single noncash donation exceeds $500. The threshold applies per item, not the aggregate total.
- Section A ($500 – $5,000 per item): Most donations fall here. No appraisal required.
- Section B (Over $5,000 per item): Requires a qualified appraisal and additional signatures.
What Deductible Duck Provides
Deductible Duck collects and tracks the following information required for Form 8283:
- Property description: Detailed item descriptions from our 1,700+ item database
- Donation date: When you made the donation
- Fair Market Value (FMV): Based on thrift shop values and comparable sales
- FMV determination method: Thrift shop values from IRS Publication 561
- Charity information: Name, address, and EIN
Why Can’t Deductible Duck Fill This Out For Me?
Why can’t Deductible Duck automatically populate Form 8283 in TurboTax?
Form 8283 requires a fair amount of complex data, all of which Deductible Duck is tracking for you. Unfortunately, the TXF format used to send the data to TurboTax does not support moving that data over. Instead, we provide you a way to generate a Form 8283 Worksheet and get the exact information you need to populate this form, column-by-column. See our Tax Reports article on how to export that report in more detail.
The gory details: Form 8283 requires specific information about each donated item that most people simply don’t have: the acquisition date, how you acquired the item, and the original cost or basis.
Deductible Duck shares information with TurboTax using the TXF file format. The data we have and the data required by Form 8283 are not supported inside of the TXF file.
Why this is difficult for item donations:
- Most used household items were purchased months or years ago
- People rarely keep purchase receipts for clothing, books, furniture, or household goods
- Many items may have been gifts, inherited, or acquired in ways that are difficult to document
- Tracking hundreds of individual items’ acquisition dates and costs is unrealistic for most donors
- TXF is a 35+ year old file format and Intuit hasn’t changed it since 2011. The data needed simply isn’t in the file (or allowed to be)
The IRS understands this reality. IRS Publication 561 acknowledges that taxpayers may not have complete records for used household items. You can use reasonable estimates for acquisition information when completing Form 8283.
What Deductible Duck does for you: We focus on the hardest part of Form 8283 - determining fair market value. Our database of 1,700+ items with FMV estimates based on thrift shop values and IRS Publication 561 guidance provides you with defensible FMV estimates. This is the most difficult and important aspect of noncash charitable deductions.
What You Need to Track Separately
For item donations over $500, Form 8283 also requires:
- Date acquired: The month and year you originally obtained the item
- How acquired: Whether you purchased it, received it as a gift, inherited it, or obtained it through an exchange
- Original cost or basis: What you paid for the item (or its fair market value if it was a gift) Important note: For most used household items (clothing, furniture, books), you may not have acquisition dates or original receipts. This is normal and acceptable. The IRS understands that people don’t keep receipts for items purchased years ago. See IRS Publication 561 for guidance on estimating these values.
How to Complete Form 8283
Follow these steps when filing your taxes:
1. Export your donation data
- Go to the Download My Data section or Tax Reports from your dashboard
- Download the Items and/or Stock Summary reports (CSV or PDF)
- Download the Form 8283 Worksheets from the Tax Reports Section
- These reports contains all the information Deductible Duck has tracked for you
2. Navigate to charitable contributions in your tax software
- TurboTax: Deductions & Credits → Charitable Donations → I’ll enter my donations → Clothes and Household Items
- Make sure your items are imported properly before continuing (a properly imported donation is one that does not have “Needs Review” flagged, telling you that you have all the info entered)
3. Enter your donation information
- Open Form 8283 inside of TurboTax
- Follow the instructions in the Form 8283 Worksheet to copy information from your Deductible Duck Form 8283 Worksheet
- Enter item descriptions, quantities, fair market values
- For acquisition date and original cost, use your best estimate or actual records if available
- Your tax software will automatically generate Form 8283 with your return
4. Review and file
The IRS may request documentation if your return is audited
Your tax software will include Form 8283 with your tax return
Keep your Deductible Duck reports and charity receipts for your records
Additional IRS Resources
- Form 8283 Instructions (IRS Official)
- Form 8283 (IRS Official)
- IRS Publication 561 – Determining the Value of Donated Property
Video Tutorial
Unofficial Guide to Filling Out Form 8283 (full walkthrough video)
Note: This is a third-party tutorial video, not affiliated with Deductible Duck or the IRS.