Form 8283 Input/Output Issues Due to Discontinuation of It's Deductible

[dmalma]

Hi,

I donated 5 different times to Goodwill throughout 2025.  Each of the 5 non-cash donation dates consisted of 100 or more household/clothing items (per date) valued at $60 or less but totaling more than $500 per donation date. 

When I used It's Deductible in prior tax years for this type of situation, TT would summarize each non-cash donation date into one category (Clothing, Footwear, Accessories & Household items) and put the total FMV for that donation date as a line item on Form 8283 Section A.  TT would leave columns e, f, and g blank even though the total donation was over $500.  I'm assuming this was because each individual item donated was under $500.   (See pic below under Questions.)

Now that It’s Deductible has been discontinued, TT’s Step-by-Step process is having me input every single item I’ve donated, by donation date and FMV.  My Form 8283 is now 8 pages long when it used to be only 2 pages long (when It’s Deductible was used).

Initially, I tried bypassing Step-By-Step to summarize donations (like TT did when It’s Deductible existed) by lumping all the donated items into one category (Clothing, Footwear, Accessories & Household items) by donation date and putting a single FMV but when I did that then TT gave me multiple error messages, saying I needed to input information into columns e, f, and g (i.e. date acquired, how acquired, cost basis), even though TT never did in the past 20 years of tax returns I did using TT.

Questions:

1. Why is TT wanting me to fill out columns e, f, and g (i.e. date acquired, how acquired, cost basis) on Section A for Form 8283 when TT never did on my past 20 years tax returns?  

   (Below is a screenshot of my 2024 Form 8283 filled out by TT using It's Deductible.  Even though the FMV for each donation date is over $500, each individual item was under $500.  This is reflected on the Contributions Worksheet, which is for my records only and not submitted to the IRS.)

   
2. If I use TT Step-By-Step and input every single item I’ve donated, TT doesn’t give me any error saying I need to input info into columns e, f, and g (because each individual item is $10 or less, even though the aggregate for a single donation date is over $500) but my Form 8283 is 8 pages long.  Is this acceptable to the IRS or do they want everything to be grouped into one similar category (Clothing, Footwear, Accessories & Household items) by donation date with a single FMV?  If I do that though can I leave columns e, f, and g (i.e. date acquired, how acquired, cost basis) on Section A for Form 8283 blank, like TT has always done, or will I have to make up information to input into columns e, f, and g and what would that information be since I have multiple different items, purchased on different dates over the years, for multiple different prices?

Thanks for your help.

[MonikaK1]

Yes, you can group the items as you have done. Note that in the heading of Section A, the form states that you can list "an item (or a group of similar items) for which you claimed a deduction of $5,000 or less". It is not necessary to list each individual item on the form. You are expected to have maintained records to support the totals reported on Form 8283.  The IRS rules have not changed. See the IRS Instructions for Form 8283 for more information.

If you donated, for example, several bags of clothing on a particular date, you can list "clothing" on Form 8283 and one total for all of the items. If you donated an assortment of household items, you can list "household items" with one total.

See also this TurboTax help article for information about the new fair market valuation (FMV) tool that helps you price your charitable donations if you’re itemizing your deductions.

[DeeDuckDave]

Hi @dmalma,

Yes, the new replacement given by TurboTax leaves some gaps that have much to be desired.

Deductible Duck allows you to track the donations, and we also generate a Form 8283 worksheet to help you fill out those fields instead of trying to figure out everything for yourself, which is a pain.  It's not a complete fix for the problem, since Intuit discontinued the tool that would do this for you automatically, but it does help.

Filling out Form 8283 requires a lot of data—and it’s all data that Deductible Duck is tracking.  We integrate with TurboTax Desktop using the TXF file format to send data over to your tax return.  Unfortunately, the TXF file format doesn’t support moving all of that data into TurboTax.  

Here’s an article about the form worksheet, if you're interested in trying our tool.
https://deductibleduck.com/docs/how-to-guides/why-we-cant-fill-form-8283/

We’re the only provider out there that gives this information, too.

If Turbo Tax ever opens up their transfer format to support more data being moved, we’ll be able to take advantage of that.  Until then, this is the workaround we have to make sure you can fill out the form.

[Me173]

So after grouping the donations with some being over $500 and listing them as household items and following the same as in years past, Turbo tax is forcing me to enter the following on the worksheets for each of the grouped donations that totaled over $500.    I bypassed this during the smart check since the actual form filed with IRS matches last year.  However, turbotax will not process my efile and instead tells me if I don't add information I can mail in my taxes.  Any idea how to get this to efile? 

1. Date Donated Property was acquired

2. How Donated Property was acquired

3. Cost/adjusted basis

[Me173]

So after grouping the donations with some being over $500 and listing them as household items and following the same as in years past, Turbo tax is forcing me to enter the following on the worksheets for each of the grouped donations that totaled over $500.    I bypassed this during the smart check since the actual form filed with IRS matches last year.  However, turbotax will not process my efile and instead tells me if I don't add information I can mail in my taxes.

1. Date Donated Property was acquired

2. How Donated Property was acquired

3. Cost/adjusted basis

If I use deductible duck will I still have these same issues and not be able to efile?  I have been using a different 3rd party app to record donations and FMV.  Then I manually enter the grouped donations, but run into this issue and contemplating why TT would be forcing me to print and MAIL returns in the year 2026!!

[RogerD1]

For 2025, the IRS revised Form 8283, that is used for reporting charitable contributions of items.  The above information that you cited is now required to be reported on this form in Section A for donations or groups of donations that total $500 or more.

For some donations that you made, if you acquired them over multiple dates, you can note that in TurboTax and it will get reported as 'Various'. Also, getting an exact cost of the donated items will likely be difficult to get - you'll just need to give a reasonable estimate of what you paid for the donated items.  And other questions about how the items were value and how acquired will need to be answered in order to enable e-filing of your return.  And mailing in the return with this information missing will likely result in a letter from the IRS disallowing the donation and requesting the missing information in order to allow it to be claimed.