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California charitable donation appraisers delivering certified valuations of personal property, equipment and machinery, fine art, business interests, boats and watercraft, automobiles and vehicles, and inventory for IRS Form 8283 charitable donation filings. AppraiseItNow provides credentialed, USPAP-compliant charitable donation appraisals across California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
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IRS Form 8283 Qualified…they crafted a detailed report in which I have much more confidence
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, CALIFORNIA CHARITIES, AND TAX PREPARERS.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member with 30 years in the trade, from running estate sales and an auction gallery to appraising luxury apparel, furniture, artwork, antiques, and business assets, primarily for IRS tax filings.
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Third-generation auctioneer and CAGA Certified Appraiser with more than 20 years valuing machinery, equipment, vehicles, business assets, and estates for banks, attorneys, and trustees across the Carolinas.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member specializing in Asian art, with a Master's from SOAS and a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. Ashley chairs the ISA's Antiques, Furnishings, and Decorative Arts committee and appraises for charitable donation, insurance, and equitable distribution.
Vehicle Appraiser
CAGA Certified Appraiser since 2014, covering vehicles, boats, equipment, fine art, and collectibles. A classic-car restoration background informs her vehicle work, with reports prepared for insurance, divorce, and charitable contributions.
Business Valuation Expert & Appraiser
ASA, ABV, and CFA charterholder. Since 2016 Justin has valued businesses for estate and gift tax, purchase price allocations, fairness opinions, lending, and buy-sell agreements, across manufacturing, services, retail, and pre-revenue biotech.
Business Valuation Expert & Appraiser
Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers. Raymond values capital stock, business enterprises, stock options, and intangible assets.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
International Society of AppraisersAccredited Member
Certified Appraisers Guild of AmericaCertified Appraiser
American Society of AppraisersAccredited Senior Appraiser
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsIRS Form 8283
A California donor claiming more than $5,000 for donated property files Section B of Form 8283 with a qualified appraisal. We prepare the appraisal and complete the appraiser's part of the form, for donors anywhere in California.
A qualified appraisal is required for items reportable in Section B and in certain cases must be attached.
California gifts run from a single painting to an entire holding of company stock, and they do not share a method. Each asset class below links to the California page written for it.
Art and collections
Fine art, jewelry, coins, and collections are the gifts the IRS looks at hardest, and art claimed at $20,000 or more has a documentation rule of its own. The comparable set has to be for the artist, maker, or issue in question rather than for the category.
Vehicles and vessels
A donated car, boat, or aircraft picks up a California receipt requirement on the charity's side as well as the federal appraisal rules on yours. Whether an appraisal is needed at all turns on what the charity does with it.
Business interests and equipment
A closely held interest, a block of private stock, or a working line of equipment has no published price, and the analysis is where the entire value comes from. These are also the gifts most likely to sit above the attachment threshold.
Household contents
A household gift is valued by category rather than object by object, at what the contents would bring in the market that actually sells them. Individual items are pulled out and valued on their own where they carry the value.
This is the rule that surprises donors most, and it applies to tangible personal property: a painting, a car, a piece of equipment, a collection. It is federal, it reaches a California return through conformity, and it is settled before the property moves rather than after.
Related use
A museum that accessions and displays a donated painting, or a school that puts donated equipment into a classroom, is making a related use of it. Fair market value is what the donor deducts, subject to the usual income limits.
Unrelated use
Selling a donated painting to fund the mission is an unrelated use, and the deduction on appreciated tangible personal property drops to the lesser of fair market value and what the donor paid for it. The cause being worthy does not change the arithmetic.
What it means for the report
The limitation is applied to a fair market value figure, so that figure is needed whichever way the gift is used. What belongs in the file alongside it is the charity's own statement of what it intends to do with the property, because that is the fact the treatment turns on.
Almost everything that governs a California donation appraisal is federal. The exceptions are worth knowing precisely, because two of them are places donors reach for a California document that will not do the job.
Vehicles, Aircraft, Vessels
90 days
the window in which a California charity or commercial fundraiser has to give the donor a written receipt describing a donated vehicle, aircraft, or vessel
Business and Professions Code § 22930 requires the receipt to describe the model, the age, the use including mileage on a vehicle, the condition, any visually apparent defects affecting value, and whether the item is operable. If the charity sells it before the receipt goes out, the receipt has to carry the sale date and the proceeds as well.
The duty is triggered by the gift being potentially deductible under Revenue and Taxation Code § 17201, so it rides on the tax treatment rather than on the act of accepting the donation. It sits alongside the federal appraisal rules and does not replace any of them.
Conformity
§ 17201
the section that folds the federal charitable deduction rules of Internal Revenue Code § 170 into California income tax, thresholds and definitions included
Every figure that decides whether an appraisal is needed, and every deadline attached to it, is federal and reaches a California return through conformity. Those figures are set out in the Form 8283 band above; California publishes none of its own and adds no state filing.
California also licenses no personal property appraiser, so the definition that decides who may sign the form is the federal one: verifiable education and experience in valuing the specific kind of property, and a report prepared in accordance with USPAP.
Not This Table
AH 581
the Assessors' Handbook section carrying the equipment index and percent good factors California county assessors apply to taxable business personal property
The Board of Equalization publishes standardized index and percent good factors so county assessors can value business equipment uniformly for local property tax. That is an assessment instrument, applied across a whole roll, and it is not an opinion of what one specific item would sell for.
A charitable contribution is measured at fair market value, developed from market evidence under USPAP and the federal rules. An assessed figure, however official it looks on California letterhead, is answering a different question.
What California clients say we are known for
Across 39 published California appraisal reviews, every one from a client who paid AppraiseItNow for an appraisal, the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
I asked AppraiseItNow to value a piece of sports memorabilia for purposes of a charitable donation. The item is rarely sold. Their research unearthed an important recent sale of a similar item, which I had not found previously, and which the first appraiser I used had not found either. AppraiseItNow was a good deal more expensive than the first service, but they crafted a detailed report in which I have much more confidence. They also helped me make sure the correct tax forms are used. Thank you!
Sports Memorabilia Appraisal for Charitable Donation
10 Stars!! Joe was a pleasure to work with. Answered all my questions with incredible patience. Payment was swift and they got started immediately and the turn around time was much sooner than I expected. (I was on a time crunch and they got it done for me incredibly fast!) And the best part was the appraisal was even more than what I was expecting. And everything I need was sent to my email. Fantastic experience, would recommend to anyone needing an appraisal!
Auto Appraisal for Charitable Donation
We were amazed at their professionalism in working with us and the quality of the final appraisal report. And all for thousands less than other appraisers.
Tractor Appraisal for Charitable Donation
I read all the prior reviews and decided on AppraiseItNow to do an IRS qualified online appraisal of my RV trailer. Joe was very responsive via both text and email. The appraiser was quick, professional, convenient and very thorough. After I provided them the RV details, facts, pictures, and the information they needed, they provided a fair and accurate appraisal. I will definitely use them again as needed.
Recreational Vehicle Appraisal for Charitable Donation
Joe is very helpful and professional! I have searched for appraisers before and it’s hard to find someone who can manage complex projects! The items I donated covers many skus and Joe has managed to help me valuate them quickly and accurately! The team provided me with all necessary documents too so I can submit with my tax return. Joe is there to answer all my questions as well. Very pleasant experience with him and highly recommend!
Inventory Appraisal for Charitable Donation
We were very satisfied with the results - fast and efficient communication, understanding our company's needs, on-time delivery of the report, as well as reasonable price point. Highly recommend.
Machinery & Equipment Appraisal for Charitable Donation
No. The Probate Code requires a personal representative to file an inventory and appraisal with the superior court within four months of letters being issued, and the appraisal is generally made by a probate referee. That is an estate administration document produced for the court that is administering the estate. A charitable deduction needs a qualified appraisal meeting the federal definition, and the two are not interchangeable in either direction.
When the deduction is limited to the charity's gross sale proceeds. If the organization sells the car rather than keeping it for its exempt purpose, the donor's deduction generally follows what it sold for and the charity reports that figure, so there is nothing for an appraisal to establish. An appraisal is needed when the charity keeps and uses the vehicle in its exempt work and the claimed deduction is above the reporting threshold.
The charity's written acknowledgment of the gift, the § 22930 receipt where the gift is a vehicle, vessel, or aircraft, evidence of the date the property actually transferred, and records of what the property cost you. The last one matters more than donors expect: where the charity's use of tangible personal property is unrelated to its exempt purpose, the deduction turns on cost basis rather than on value alone.
The donor. It is the donor's return, the donor's deduction, and the donor who faces the penalty exposure that Publication 561 sets out for a misstated value, whoever prepared the appraisal. That is the whole argument for a report that shows its comparable sales, names the market it drew them from, and states its assumptions, rather than one that arrives at a number and asks to be believed.