The properties of thin film InVO 4 photoanodes for water splitting have been studied. Compact films of InVO 4 were prepared by spray pyrolysis and are found to be stable between pH 3 -11. Although the indirect bandgap is 3.2 eV, a modest amount of visible light absorption is observed. The origin of this absorption is attributed to the presence of deep donor states at ~0.7 eV below the conduction band. Shallow donors are absent in this material, in contrast to what is normally observed for metal oxides. The deep donor model explains the much stronger visible light absorption of powders compared to thin films, and is supported by photoluminescence data. The origin of the deep donors is attributed to deviations in the In:V ratio, and the corresponding defect-chemical reactions will be discussed.