Appraisals for Gift, Donation and Tax Filings: What Your CPA Will Ask For

When a house or a piece of land is given away, to family or to a charity, the CPA preparing the return usually asks for one thing first: a written appraisal of the property's fair market value as of the date of the gift or contribution, signed by an appraiser whose qualifications are stated in the report. A residential appraiser supplies that opinion of value and the evidence behind it. Your CPA or attorney decides how the value is used and reported. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.

Below: what the CPA tends to ask for, which IRS documents set the rules, and where a residential appraisal fits. Every IRS statement links to irs.gov or the regulation itself.

What does the CPA usually ask for?

The CPA generally wants a report that shows:

• The property, identified. Address, legal description, physical features, condition and dimensions. IRS Publication 561 says a real estate appraisal report "must contain a complete description of the property."
• The date the value applies to. The effective date, the date the opinion of value applies to, set to the date of the gift or contribution rather than the day of the inspection.
• The definition of value used. Fair market value as the tax rules define it, quoted in the report.
• The method and the specific evidence. Which approach was used and which comparable sales support it, with each adjustment explained.
• Who prepared it and why they are qualified. The appraiser's education and experience in valuing this type of property, a signed certification, and the date signed.
• What the report is for. The intended use, what the report will be used for, and the intended users, the people entitled to rely on it.

Most of that is ordinary reporting under USPAP, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, which already requires the effective date, intended use and scope of work, the type and extent of research and analysis, to be stated. The tax rules add items that differ by filing.

Which filing is this for?

Three IRS settings bring a real estate appraisal to a CPA's desk.

A gift to family: Form 709

The Instructions for Form 709 (2025) say the value of a gift "is the fair market value (FMV) of the property on the date the gift is made (valuation date)." For a gift to be adequately disclosed, the return or an attached statement includes, among other items, "Either a qualified appraisal or a detailed description of the method used to determine the fair market value of the gift." The same instructions say: "Also attach any appraisal used to determine the value of real estate or other property."

The regulation those instructions point to, 26 CFR 301.6501(c)-1(f)(3), lists what such an appraisal contains, from the date of the transfer and the purpose of the appraisal to the valuation method and "the specific basis for the valuation, such as specific comparable sales." It also says the appraiser is not the donor, the donee, a family member of either, or their employee. The article on what the CPA needs when a Claremont house changes hands walks through that list for a single-family home.

A gift to a charity: Form 8283

For a noncash charitable contribution above the dollar threshold stated in the Instructions for Form 8283 (Rev. December 2025), the donor completes Section B, and "Items reportable in Section B require a written qualified appraisal by a qualified appraiser." The instructions are direct about the form itself: "Form 8283 is an appraisal summary. It is not an appraisal."

A qualified appraisal, as 26 CFR 1.170A-17 defines it, is an appraisal document prepared by a qualified appraiser under the substance and principles of USPAP that meets the regulation's content and timing rules. A qualified appraiser is an individual with verifiable education and experience in valuing the type of property appraised, who states that education and experience in the report and declares that they are qualified. The instructions say the appraisal must be "signed and dated by a qualified appraiser not earlier than 60 days before the date you contribute the property," and received before the due date of the return on which the deduction is first claimed. Confirm current thresholds and dates on the IRS page. The qualified appraisal behind a Form 8283 covers the appraiser's declaration and the donee's acknowledgment.

A loss: Publication 547

Publication 547 (2025) says the appraisal "to determine the difference between the FMV of the property immediately before a casualty or theft and immediately afterward should be made by a competent appraiser," and that the appraiser must recognize the effects of any general market decline that occurs along with the casualty. That is a before-and-after scope of work, not a gift appraisal, and whether a loss is deductible is the CPA's question.

How is fair market value defined for tax purposes?

Fair market value, in the words of the Form 709 instructions, is "the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, when neither is forced to buy or to sell, and when both have reasonable knowledge of all relevant facts." Publication 561 uses the same idea for donated property, and the report quotes the definition it applies.

A lender appraisal is a different document. A refinance report is written for the lender as intended user, under the lender's definition and forms, and it does not carry the statements a gift return or a Form 8283 expects.

Which date does the value apply to?

The date of gift, the date the gift is made, is the valuation date the Form 709 instructions name. For a charitable gift, Publication 561 says that ordinarily the date of a contribution "is the date on which the property is delivered to the charity or the title transfer date," provided the donor keeps no right that limits the charity's use. The regulation adds a rule for donation reports: when the report is dated after the contribution, the valuation effective date "must be the date of the contribution."

The date is the attorney's or CPA's call, not the appraiser's. When the gift is already past, the report is a retrospective appraisal, an appraisal whose effective date is in the past, built from sales that closed around that date.

What does a residential appraiser not do here?

Keeping the value apart from its tax treatment is what makes the report credible. A residential appraiser:

• does not give tax advice, choose a valuation date, or say how a value will be reported or deducted;
• does not value an LLC, partnership or fractional interest, or apply discounts to one; a business appraiser does that;
• does not compute a remainder interest, the right to own the property after a life estate ends; Publication 561 says those are valued at present value using IRS actuarial tables, and 26 CFR 1.170A-17 says that when the gift is a partial interest "the appraisal must be of the partial interest," so the CPA sets the scope before the engagement;
• does not take a conservation easement donation without the property-type experience 26 CFR 1.170A-17 requires.

A part-gift, part-sale to a family member, or a bargain sale, a sale to a charity for less than market value, gets the same treatment: the appraisal states market value, and the CPA works out what the difference means.

Why not use the assessment, a CMA or an online estimate?

The county assessment is the taxable value under California's assessment rules, and it is not an appraisal. The federal gift regulation, 26 CFR 25.2512-1, says property "shall not be returned at the value at which it is assessed for local tax purposes unless that value represents the fair market value thereof on the date of the gift." An agent's CMA, an opinion of likely list price, is not an appraisal, and neither is an automated estimate such as a Zestimate. Appraisal vs. estimate sets the four side by side.

A property tax question is also separate from an income or gift tax question. A parent-child transfer of a family home may raise a reassessment question under Proposition 19, handled by the county assessor, not by the IRS. The Prop 19 decision sheet for a Montclair family home sets out where an appraisal fits in that one.

The kinds of properties these files involve

Properties these filings can involve, on both sides of the county line:

• A pre-1940 house near the Colleges and the Village in Claremont, compared with sales of its own era and style, as the Claremont area page describes.
• A Pomona duplex near downtown or Holt Avenue, where legal unit count enters the analysis.
• A Chino horse property, with its outbuildings described.
• Vacant land toward Padua Hills, where view, grade and access decide the comparables.
• A Montclair or Upland tract house given parent to child, where a sale across Mills Avenue needs the county-line difference explained.

Independence and the fee

The regulation is explicit: "The fee for a qualified appraisal cannot be based to any extent on the appraised value of the property." Here, the fee is set by the scope of the assignment and quoted before work begins, and it does not depend on the value. The appraiser is independent of every party, including whoever pays; the appraisal independence policy explains why.

What to send at the start

• The address, and the deed or the planned transfer document.
• The date of gift or contribution, or the planned date, as the CPA or attorney sets it.
• The filing the report supports, and who will read it.
• Permits, leases and HOA documents, and any earlier appraisal.

Next step

CPAs and estate planning attorneys can see how tax-purpose reports are set up on appraisals for attorneys, CPAs and fiduciaries, or call (909) 324-6122 to describe the property, the date and the filing. The gift, charitable and tax-purpose appraisals hub collects the series.

Sources

• IRS, Instructions for Form 709 (2025), accessed November 6, 2026
• IRS, Instructions for Form 8283 (Rev. December 2025), accessed November 6, 2026
• IRS, Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property (December 2025), accessed November 6, 2026
• IRS, Publication 547 (2025), Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts, accessed November 6, 2026
• 26 CFR 1.170A-17, Qualified appraisal and qualified appraiser, accessed November 6, 2026
• 26 CFR 301.6501(c)-1, adequate disclosure and submission of appraisals, accessed November 6, 2026
• 26 CFR 25.2512-1, Valuation of property; in general, accessed November 6, 2026
• The Appraisal Foundation, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), accessed November 6, 2026

Gordon Hall, California Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, BREA No. AR003877 (lookup: https://www2.brea.ca.gov/breasearch/faces/party/view.xhtml?id=23601). Reports are prepared in conformity with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Nothing here is legal or tax advice; admissibility is always the court's decision.