Form 8283

[Burke]

I absolutely hate 8283's. Same old information over and over again.  Clothing & HH Goods.   I note a previous post from JohnH saying he set up master forms for these, but he uses Drake.  ATX has input worksheets.   Do any of you use a master form for these?  Or combine receipts to the same donee institution into one entry?  I usually do and just type in "XX trips."  I recently got a return done by a CPA and he input every single receipt separately which meant 4 individual 8283 schedules. 

[Max W]

Welcome to the H8 8283 club. One of the biggest PIA's in prepping TR's.  This was brought up her about a month ago.  Some preparers including myself will lump several of the receipts from the same institution  together.   If the IRS wanted to crack down on this, they would probably throw out 90% of the claims.    I have been in some of the thrift stores and the selling prices are much lower than most people are claiming. 

[Possi]

I couldn't buy the amount of clothing my clients give away every year. And if my "Misc Household" stuff was worth what they are claiming, I'd KEEP it.

Oh how I wish this was gone. Love the "H8 8283 Club!"

[RitaB]

4 hours ago, Burke said:

I absolutely hate 8283's. Same old information over and over again.  Clothing & HH Goods.   I note a previous post from JohnH saying he set up master forms for these, but he uses Drake.  ATX has input worksheets.   Do any of you use a master form for these?  Or combine receipts to the same donee institution into one entry?  I usually do and just type in "XX trips."  I recently got a return done by a CPA and he input every single receipt separately which meant 4 individual 8283 schedules. 

I've not tried the master form method, but I do combine receipts to the same donee if more than a few.  If I could charge for the real value of my time for every entry, and not lose the client, I'd be more inclined to do that, but I kinda wonder if that's why your client left the CPA who included all the details.  If we charge what it's costing us to not be doing another task, we lose clients.  It's frustrating.

[Abby Normal]

In master forms I added 4 records for a total of 5 and customized each record as shown below. You have to restore the FMV field when you're done, but that was the only way I could get the 'Were goods or services exchanged...' question to appear. I guess the programmers think they're doing us a favor by making parts of the forms hidden until we make entries, but I hate it!

[mwrightea]

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Love the master form,  H8 the 8283. 

[Lion EA]

I don't use ATX.  I have a check box to pro forma to next year.  So, the clients that take in boxes and bags of stuff each month, have 12 forms that roll over for me.  Very little typing after that first year.  And, I can duplicate forms in the current year, a huge help if they always give to Goodwill or whichever charity.  I probably have a "master form" method, but the check-the-box method makes it really fast for me.  I still need to charge more, due to "education" time.  This year EVERY client received a FMV Guide.

[JohnH]

We each must use whatever the software provides us, but I give Drake a huge edge on this feature (as well as many others).  I write a macro for the 8283 one time, then any time I want to produce the form, its runs with a single keystroke. Once the macro is written, I just modify the name and address info for the next one, so I wind up with a separate macro for Goodwill, a different one for KF, another one for Community Foundation, etc.  This helps considerably because I see Goodwill receipts from 4 or 5 different locations.  I have to keep a cross reference for the macros, but that's just a matter of filling in cells in a spreadsheet and printing it out each time it's updated.

I'd like to buy everything from my clients for what it's actually worth and sell it back to them for what they think it's worth.  Wish there was a macro or master form to set THAT process into motion.

[Abby Normal]

I'm a fan of macros/scripts. I have AutoHotkey running all the time and have used it for macros in ATX, but if I had 4 or 5 different locations for Goodwill, I would still lump them into one Goodwill donation. Our rules is if there are more than 5 donees, the 5th one is listed as a donee "& others". Our reasoning is if it doesn't change the tax and it would survive an audit, it's a waste of time to do.

[Catherine]

I also lump together all Goodwill.  Ditto for Epilepsy Foundation, Big Brother/Big Sister, and some of the others that are common around here.

[SaraEA]

Does ATX really make you fill in all that info?  Good grief.  I hate 8283 as much as anyone, but UT goes a lot easier on users.  The type of organization defaults to 50%, no property type or contribution limit questions (repetitive question), no question about goods or services received, no checkboxes about the organization and type of gain, and no entry for condition.  How would you even know that?  Half of the receipts I see don't even list an amount and none has ever shown condition (well, once and awhile someone lists "new").   There is a box for donor's cost but it doesn't have to be filled.  I think ATX is really overdoing it and torturing users.

In a National Research Program line-by-line audit I recently completed, the auditor disallowed ALL cash contribs because of lack of documentation that followed the law but didn't say a word about a lot of Goodwill donations.  The clients had only skimpy lists written on the receipts, but I guess the substantiation requirements in the code and regs are not spelled out so auditor just accepted the amounts.  What a racket.  Hopefully our 8283 angst will dissipate now that fewer people will itemize.

[Lion EA]

Exactly, in ProSystem fx with each client's favorite charities rolling over (mostly Goodwill in this area) all I have to do is type in the FMV the client claims and any other detail that I choose to record.  That takes no more time then typing each FMV into my calculator and then typing in the total on 8283.  The local Goodwill receipts give drop-off locations by town/area, but the formal name/address info is all one "headquarters" type of address in one town, so that's all I use and it pro formas from the prior year.  My clients are creatures of habit and give to the same charities.  8283 has no more typing for me than their cash/check donations.  Sometimes less typing, because I do break out their cash donations of $250 and more if the client lists them.  And, I find that other than their church, cash donations vary more from year to year than their in-kind donations.

[mwrightea]

ATX used to roll over on 8283 and had a lot more useful features prior to 2012. 

[Abby Normal]

ATX has a drop down at the top for donees, but only if the client had an 8283 last year. We keep suggesting a payer database for this form along with 2441 and colleges on 1098-T. Maybe one day!