8283 charitable donations attachment requirement - what's with this new IRS rule?

This is actually a real change that happened during this filing season, though the IRS hasn't been great about publicizing it. The requirement is related to Form 8283, which is used to report non-cash charitable contributions. Prior to March 17, 2024, you only needed the donee acknowledgment signatures for donations valued over a certain threshold. Now they're requiring the signed acknowledgment for ALL donations listed on Form 8283, regardless of value. It's frustrating that they implemented this mid-season with little warning. What you need to do is contact each charity you donated to and request a signed acknowledgment letter. Most legitimate charities should have already provided these when you made your donations. Check your email or paperwork you received at the time of donation. If you can't find them, reach out to the organizations directly.

I ran into this exact same issue last week and was totally stressed out! I ended up using taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which was incredibly helpful for organizing all my donation documentation. I had a bunch of receipts and acknowledgment letters scattered across emails and paper documents, and their tool helped me extract all the relevant information and format it properly for my 8283 attachment. The system actually walks you through exactly what documents you need for each charity donation and helps you compile them into the right format. Saved me hours of hunting through emails and trying to figure out what exactly the IRS needed. Plus, it double-checked that each acknowledgment had all the required elements to avoid another rejection.

Just wanted to follow up and say I tried taxr.ai after seeing this thread and it was actually really helpful! I was missing acknowledgments from two organizations and didn't realize it. The system flagged exactly what I needed and provided templates I could send to the charities to get the proper documentation. Got my return accepted yesterday after dealing with this same rejection issue. They also explained that this requirement has actually been in the regulations for a while but the IRS only recently started enforcing it through their electronic filters - which explains why it seemed to come out of nowhere.

If anyone is still struggling to get ahold of their charities for these acknowledgments, I highly recommend Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent days trying to reach one of the larger national organizations by phone with no luck. Watched their demo video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and decided to give it a try. They basically got me connected to a real person at the charity within 10 minutes when I had been stuck on hold for hours across multiple days. The charity representative was able to email me the signed acknowledgment right away. Apparently this new IRS enforcement has them completely overwhelmed with calls from donors, so getting through their phone system was nearly impossible without help.

I need to publicly eat my words. After being skeptical about Claimyr in my previous comment, I was desperate enough to try it last night. I'd been trying to reach United Way for 3 days with no luck. Used their service and got connected to a representative in about 25 minutes (while I was making dinner, not actively waiting on the phone). The rep immediately sent my acknowledgment letter once I explained what I needed. Return was accepted this morning after I attached all my documentation. This new IRS requirement is still ridiculous to implement mid-season, but at least I found a way to deal with it.

There's actually a workaround for this if you can't get all your acknowledgments in time. You can file for an extension using Form 4868, which gives you until October 15 to file your completed return. This doesn't extend the time to pay any taxes owed, but it does give you more time to collect all the required documentation from your charities.

Has anyone checked if the IRS is actually enforcing this? Sometimes tax software companies implement these rules before the IRS actually starts rejecting returns. My brother-in-law is a CPA and says they're seeing mixed results - some returns without attachments are being accepted while others are rejected.

I'm dealing with this exact same nightmare right now! Filed my return two weeks ago and got hit with this rejection message yesterday. What's really frustrating is that I actually DID get acknowledgment letters from most of my charities when I made the donations, but they're all in different formats and some don't have the specific language the IRS apparently wants. One thing I discovered is that the acknowledgment needs to include specific elements: the charity's name, date of contribution, location of the contribution, and a description of any non-cash property donated. Some of my letters were missing one or two of these elements, which I think is why my return got flagged. I'm now going back to each organization to request updated acknowledgments with all the required language. It's ridiculous that they changed this requirement in the middle of tax season with basically zero notice. Has anyone found a template or standard language that works for requesting these from charities?

This whole situation is absolutely maddening! I'm a tax preparer and have been dealing with dozens of clients getting hit with these rejections over the past few weeks. What makes it worse is that the IRS issued this new enforcement quietly through their electronic filing system without any formal announcement or guidance update on their website. For anyone still struggling with this, here's what I've learned works best: Contact each charity and specifically request a "donee acknowledgment letter per IRS Publication 526." Most established charities know exactly what this means and can provide the proper format. Make sure the letter includes the charity's legal name (exactly as it appears on their tax-exempt determination), your name, donation date, and a clear description of what you donated. The frustrating part is that many people actually received these acknowledgments when they made their donations but didn't realize they'd need them attached to their tax return. The IRS has always required charities to provide these, but now they're actually checking that taxpayers include them with their filings. It's enforcement of an existing rule, not technically a "new" rule, but the practical effect is the same for all of us scrambling to gather documentation. If you're running out of time before the deadline, definitely consider filing an extension to give yourself more time to collect proper documentation rather than rushing and potentially making errors.