Form 8283 filing requirements

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
March 10, 2026
2 replies
156 views

I bought and donated a car worth over $5000 but the desktop TurboTax software put the item in Section "A" of form 8283. The box in column b is checked and all data requirements are fulfilled. For column i, I had the vehicle appraised which came in above my purchase cost so I limited the deduction to purchase cost. Since the item is not listed in Section B, where donee and appraiser signatures are required, can I still efile my taxes? I hesitate to "test" the system by trying to efile, just in case the software does not prevent it but the IRS rejects because of missing signatures, even if Section B is blank. Also, I did get a 1098C from the donee. If I can efile, how do I attach it to my submission?

PS. In retrospect, I should have simply given the charity the money and said, "Go buy yourself a car!"

LeticiaF1

Level 12

You are correct, reporting the donation of a car can be complicated. The amount you can claim for deduction depends on what the charity does with the vehicle and the fair market value of the vehicle.

If the charity sells the vehicle, then you usually will claim the amount the charity sells the car for.
- The exception is, If the charity sells the vehicle for $500 or less, then you can deduct $500 or the car's fair market value, whichever is less.
If the charity keeps the car for its own use, then you can claim the deduction for the fair market value of the vehicle.

Go through your entries for Form 1098-C, make sure that you enter the correct deduction. Donating a vehicle does not affect your ability to efile your return. When you finish your return, TurboTax will provide additional instructions for any paperwork that you might need to mail to the IRS.

Where do I enter Form 1098-C?

How Do Tax Deductions Work When Donating a Car?

JYA11Author

Level 2

I appreciate your reply, however, it does not address the issue. The car was not sold and will remain in use by the charity. It's FMV exceeds the $5000, yet Turbotax puts the entry in Section A of the 8283, not Section B. I spent a couple hours with a Turbotax support person and she agreed the software has an issue. The solution offered was to go into forms mode and override every field of the Section A entry with blanks and rekey the data in section B. This section is where the Appraiser and the Donnee need to sign. Consequently, the return cannot be efiled to include the signatures and must be mailed in. So, Turbotax, by putting my donation in section A would have allowed me to eFile (I think...I never dared to go that far into the questionnaire.) It most probably would have been rejected. In any case, with the work-around, I could at least use Turbotax to print the forms. The alternative was to down load the form from the IRS, which allows entering the information, getting it signed and mailing the whole return. In all cases, when requiring attachments, since the IRS won't accept eFiled attachments, even if Turbotax facilitated them, you have to mail in your return.