IRS Facing Suit Over Rejection of Appraiser’s Valuation Methods

A Virgina-based appraiser is accusing the IRS of unfairly discounting how he and his company determine the worth of his clients’ charitable donations for tax purposes.

NoVaStar Appraisals and founder Patrick Smith allege in their complaint, filed Sunday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, that the IRS is engaged in “a campaign of selectively, automatically, arbitrarily, capriciously and systematically rejecting” his fair-market value appraisals.

The IRS’s pattern of valuation denials “has created great uncertainty about the governing legal rules” in the appraisal business, the complaint said. That uncertainty “necessitates a judicial declaration of the correct ...