Charitable contributions

I think you came up empty because there is no such requirement. :-)

"A donor cannot claim a tax deduction for any single contribution of $250 or more [N.B. $250, not $50] unless the donor obtains a contemporaneous, written acknowledgment of the contribution from the recipient organization.

"An organization that does not acknowledge a contribution incurs no penalty; but, without a written acknowledgment, the donor cannot claim the tax deduction."

"Although it's a donor's responsibility to obtain a written acknowledgment, an organization can assist a donor by providing a timely, written statement containing ..."

I can't claim the deduction without a receipt, but the recipient has no obligation to provide one? Amazing!

"A donor cannot claim a tax deduction for any contribution of cash, a check or other monetary gift unless the donor maintains a record of the contribution in the form of either a bank record (such as a cancelled check) or a written communication from the charity [...]"

The first clause of this ("[...] unless the donor maintains a record [...]") seems to give me an out, since I maintain records of everything, and my credit union can give me *a copy of* the check. Am I inserting wishful thinking here, or does this allow me to claim it despite the fact that the organization failed to give me a receipt?

I'll try to remember that syntax for the future.

Thanks,

Yes, for charitable contributions LESS THAN $250.00 (i.e. $250.00 exceeds this threshold - stupid!) all you need is your records, such as a cancelled check. And you can make multiple such gifts to a charity, but I would recommend spreading them out over time a bit.

Almost all public charities routinely issue contemporaneous receipts for donations. The only common exceptions seem to be churches, synagogues, etc., which often issue an annual letter wherein they document all of the donations given over the past year. While the IRS "could" disallow such a deduction as not strictly meeting the documentation requirements, I'm not aware of any such case. (Admitedly, I've never gone looking for one either.)

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia, NJ

The annual letter does meet the requirements. Pub. 526, page

"For the written acknowledgement to be considered contemporaneous with the contribution . . . You must get it on or before the earlier of: a. The date you file your return for the year you make the contribution; or b. The due date, including extensions, for filing the return."

Bob Sandler

Note that these receipts are often not detailed.

I frequently give donations of clothing and household items to Big Brothers Big Sisters. When they pick up the box, they leave an acknowledgement card that has blanks for the date and donated items. The donor fills this in themselves.

Then again, my donations never even come close to the $250 threshold for receipts, and I expet this is typical. 10-20 items of used clothing usually adds up to $20-50, depending on the types and quality.

In my experience, if you donate cash or securities, you get a receipt that includes the value of the donation, because it is easy to determine. The value of used clothes or household goods is totally subjective and it would be asking for trouble for them to guess. So you get to decide how much trouble you want by making your own estimate.

In addition, the charity is substantiating that the donor received no goods nor services in exchange and the entire amount is deductible.

When I write a thank you letter on behalf of a charity, I use this key language suggested by Publication 1771:

Thank you very much for your generous contribution of $____, for which no goods nor services were received in exchange. This will help to [portion of mission statement], a cause that you believe in.

Please save this letter with your tax records. This letter provides written acknowledgement to substantiate a charitable contribution on your tax return.

Written Acknowledgment

Requirement

A donor cannot claim a tax deduction for any single contribution of $250 or more unless the donor obtains a contemporaneous, written acknowledgment of the contribution from the recipient organization. An organization that does not acknowledge a contribution incurs no penalty; but, without a written acknowledgment, the donor cannot claim the tax deduction.

While there might not be an IRS penalty for not acknowledging a contribution, as a practical matter it behooves charities to provide the written documentation if they hope to get repeat contributions.