I donated a car but never received a form 1098-C. Instead, the charity sent me a letter as my donation receipt. What do I do?

[Anonymous]

In 2017 I donated a car. I never received a form 1098-C from the charity but I did receive a letter from them stating the donation and the following: "This letter serves as your receipt for this gift and acknowledges that you were not provided with any cash, goods or services in consideration, in whole or in part, for your gift."

The letter contains all the donation information, including the cars VIN#, donor information, the car's condition and the charity's Tax ID#. The donation was for $499.

When I finished e-filing my taxes, TurboTax instructed me to print out form 8453. The TurboTax instructions are telling me to attach form 1098-C to it and mail it to the IRS. What should I do?

[Opus 17]

What donation value did you claim in TurboTax?

[Anonymous]

I claimed $499, which was the amount the charity had written the receipt for.

[Opus 17]

Hm.  A form 1098-C is not required if the auto donation has a claimed value of less than $500, so I don't know why Turbotax would insist.  Seems like a design error.

I would either,

1) mail the charity letter with the cover page.  A letter is an adequate substitute for a form 1098-C if it contains all the information that would normally be on a 1098-C.

2) or, delete the car donation, and re-enter it as a "personal property" donation for the same value (less than $500).  Since the form is not required, this should not be a compliance issue, and will remove the need to mail a form to the IRS.