Parsons Fine Art Advisory

For institutions

When your donor asks who should appraise the gift

Every significant gift of art puts a development officer in the same position: the donor needs a qualified appraisal, and the institution that knows the object best is the one the regulations exclude from providing it. Someone independent has to do it, and the donor will ask you who.

The referral

A name you can give with confidence

What an institution needs from the appraiser it recommends is simple: the donor’s deduction survives, the paperwork is right the first time, and no one’s name ends up in IRS correspondence. That requires an appraiser who knows the sixty-day signing window, the Form 8283 Section B requirements, the content rules for qualified appraisals, and the thresholds at which the complete report travels with the return.

It also requires independence the donor can see. The practice advises; it does not buy or sell. The fee is hourly and published, never a percentage of value. The museum pays nothing: the donor engages the practice directly, and the institution’s role stays exactly what the regulations intend.

A donor’s property, family and intentions are never discussed with anyone the donor has not named, and the institution hears only what the donor authorizes.

Where it goes wrong

The defects that cost donors their deductions

Most disallowed art donations fail on paperwork rather than value: an appraisal signed outside the sixty-day window, a missing appraiser declaration, a report that omits a required element, an appraiser who does not meet the qualification rules for this use. All are avoidable, and all invisible to the donor until an examiner finds them years later.

The sequencing conversation takes ten minutes and is free: fix the gift date, commission the appraisal inside the window, then execute the deed of gift. If your development office would like a short written summary of the current requirements to keep on file, ask and one will be sent.

More on charitable donation appraisals · The thresholds, one page (PDF)

Common questions

Why can’t the museum appraise the gift for the donor?
The regulations exclude the donee, and anyone employed by or related to the donee, from serving as the qualified appraiser. The rule keeps the valuation independent of the institution that benefits. The museum’s role is the deed of gift and the acknowledgment on Form 8283; the value must come from someone with no stake in the gift.
What does the donor’s timeline look like?
The appraisal must be signed no earlier than sixty days before the date of the gift and no later than the donor’s filing deadline, including extensions. A qualified appraisal takes four to six weeks, and the donee’s own acceptance process takes time as well. For a gift dated in December, the practical start is October. The practice will walk a gift officer or a donor’s adviser through the sequencing before anything is commissioned, at no charge.
What will the report cover?
Everything the regulations require of a qualified appraisal: identification and condition of the property, the terms of the gift, the valuation method and the basis for the value, the effective date, the appraiser’s qualifications, and a signed declaration. For art claimed at $20,000 or more the complete appraisal is attached to the return, so it is written to be read by an examiner.
Does the practice charge the museum anything?
No. The regulations put the appraisal in the donor’s hands, so the donor engages the practice and pays the published hourly rate. The fee is never a percentage of value, which the IRS prohibits and no institution should accept. The museum receives the sequencing conversation and a predictable process that will not embarrass anyone before the IRS.
Our donor’s gift includes objects outside the practice’s specialty. What then?
The practice says so at the outset, and either brings in a specialist under the engagement or refers that part of the gift out. An appraisal is only as strong as the appraiser’s competence in the property, and the practice does not stretch its own.

A conversation, not a commitment

If you have a gift in motion, or want a name on file before you need one, call or write. Inquiries are answered within one business day.

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