Any appraiser, whether appraising gems and jewelry, antiques, decorative art, architectural salvage, appliances, furnishings, or any other personal property, must be educated. In fact, the IRS requires education and/or experience to be considered an IRS Qualified Appraiser.
Not only is initial education and training necessary, but continuing education is mandated by each of the three personal property organizations sponsoring The Appraisal Foundation:
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1.American Society of Appraisers (ASA)
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2.Appraisers Association of America (AAA)
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3.International Society of Appraisers (ISA)
The Green Mission Inc. along with our sister company Probity Appraisal Group, ensures our staff procures the preliminary as well as continuing education necessary to competently research and complete appraisals. The same standards apply whether we are appraising deconstruction and architecturally salvaged property at The Green Mission or antiques, fine art, decorative art, or collectibles at Probity Appraisal Group.
Team Leaders Education
Our CEO Jessica Marschall finished ISA education and training and is an accredited member in Antiques, Furnishings, Decorative Art, and Other Household Content. She also completed the AAA intensive CASP training, a month-long masters-level program with courses covering multiple personal property appraisal disciplines with inclusion of written assignments and examinations. She also finished the ASA Principles of Valuation four core courses and completed all appraisal writing, review, and examinations. Additionally, she completed and passed her USPAP training and examination. Jessica is a practicing CPA of twenty years and has a MS in Accounting
Our COO Mayur Dankhara is an accredited appraiser through ISA in the same discipline as Jessica, is also a LEED AP and has a MS in Construction Management. He brings a decade of work in both the construction and deconstruction industry with him.
Additionally, we have drawn our staff of appraisers from the three personal property appraisal organizations with specialists in each type of property appraised.
American Society of Appraiser’s Annual Conference and IRS Updates
Additionally, we have drawn our staff of appraisers from the three personal property appraisal organizations with specialists in each type of property appraised.
Form 8283
Right out of the gate, Karin Gross, IRS Counsel, announced that Form 8283 can now be digitally signed! This will make the appraiser, nonprofit recipient and client’s lives much easier. However, appraisals still require original signatures. Despite the small amount of space provided on Form 8283, all appraisers responsible for the opinion of value, must sign form 8283. Additionally, it was emphasized that our only required signature is on page two of the form within our designated section.
IRS Qualified Appraiser: What is required?
According to IRS Publication 561, an appraiser must have education and/or experience, with demonstrated competency, typically gained through one of the three personal property appraisal organizations. Demonstrated competency occurs when appraisers take courses and complete examinations to assess mastery of content. Additionally, appraisers have their reports reviewed and critiqued through each organization.
The core valuation methodology and theory taught by personal property appraisal organizations apply whether appraising a 19th century Old Master’s oil on canvas, a cinnabar box, a hollow core door, or framing lumber. Without mastery of these concepts, an appraiser does not properly understand the relationship between the property and the larger macroeconomic market drilling down to the microeconomic market for the particular property.
According to the presentation, the higher the value of donation, the more extensive credentials and education the appraiser must have. This is especially pertinent to the deconstruction appraisal industry as many of the appraised values are significantly higher than appraisals for antiques or art. These higher values require more education and adequate experience, not less.
In multiple ASA presentations as well as the IRS breakout session, the appraiser’s CV was discussed. An appraisal must include the appraiser’s CV. We were cautioned: Do not fill this with nonsense! We were provided with examples of some appraisers claiming membership to a personal property organization where they are the sole member or one in which mastery of educational content is not tested. Do not list credentials or accreditation from organizations that are no longer in existence. The IRS closely reviews the CV and needs to see competence through education and experience.
The presenters reiterated that demonstrated competency from an appraisal organization is critical. An appraiser from one discipline is not necessarily qualified for another. Appraisals to substantiate non-cash charitable contributions have the highest bar in terms of required research and content standards, with an extensive underlying work product to substantiate our values. Appraisers completing appraisals for tax deductions should have a high-level of education, appraisal organization affiliation and accreditation and continuing education.
Additionally, we were cautioned not to take shortcuts on appraisals due to underpayment from clients. If the client will not compensate the appraiser for the work necessary to competently and completely fulfill an assignment, an appraiser should consider declining.
We should be specific on descriptions, define terminology in a manner that someone outside of the appraisal field might understand, provide adequate photographs, and be specific on condition. The more valuable a donation, the more photographs necessary.
We were reminded that, as always, the IRS is not sleeping, so be prepared for audits. The Green Mission Inc. and Probity Appraisal Group are often contracted to help with retrospective appraisals and consulting due to non-cash charitable contribution appraisal audits.
The presenters reminded us that the IRS never contacts the appraiser. Those appraisers claiming to have never had an audit cannot make this claim in good faith.
Going back to Publication 561, our attention was drawn to “Excluded Individuals.” This includes an appraiser who does not perform a majority of his or her appraisals made during his or her tax year for other persons.
We must remain independent, objective and unbiased.
Additionally, 31 U.S. Code §330 Practice before the Department regulates the practice of representatives of persons before the Department of the Treasury, which includes appraisers. They must demonstrate:
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1.Good character
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2.Good reputation
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3.Necessary qualifications to enable the representative to provide to persons valuable service; and
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4.Competency to advise and assist persons in presenting their cases.
Going Forward
The Green Mission Inc. and Probity Appraisal Group are excited to be actively engaged with the three personal property organizations as well as local auctions, galleries, consignment shops, reuse dealers, and others within the appraisal industry.
Probity Appraisal Group continues to add consultant experts across disciplines to ensure competency and continued exceptional reports. The conference enabled our team to meet new appraisers with whom we can collaborate on future projects.
The Green Mission Inc. continues to help expand the deconstruction and architectural reuse market. Strangely, there are only a handful of these types of appraisers and very few are accredited from any of the three organizations, nor do they have content on websites demonstrating their knowledge and competency while some do not have websites at all. Also, review case law Mann v. US, 2019 and the lost appeal in 2021. The appraiser used the Cost Approach to valuation. Ask for a sample appraisal and literature provided by an appraiser detailing their experience, education, and work product.
We are committed to ensuring IRS Qualified Appraisals are completed by IRS Qualified Appraisers when appraising property incident to deconstruction as well as personal property in general. Recently, the deconstruction industry group Build Reuse committed to supplying a list of IRS Qualified Appraisers on their website, with details of each appraiser’s education, personal property organization affiliation and accreditation as well as website.
Continuing Our Education
Our team continues to attend seminars and events on appraisal and tax-related subjects. We ensure our competency enables us to provide the highest-quality appraisal for our clients.
