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them, and petitioners no longer have any 1989 records. Thus, all
we can conclude is that petitioners' 1989 original tax records
are not now available.
However, petitioners still bear the burden of-
substantiating the claimed deductions and credit. To do so,
petitioners may present secondary evidence. Petitioner contends
that he cannot reconstruct his records because the cost to
duplicate his records is prohibitive. However, the cost to
duplicate petitioner's records, which may substantiate the
deductions and credit, does not relieve petitioner of his burden
of proof.
We will now first consider the issues raised by
respondent's determination in the notice of deficiency.
Charitable Contribution Deduction
Petitioners claimed a charitable contribution deduction in
the amount of $18,151 on the original return. In the notice of
deficiency respondent disallowed the entire amount, but
respondent conceded on brief that petitioners made charitable
contributions to CHSC in the amount of $2,657, which were
substantiated by copies of their check carbons.4
Section 170 allows a deduction for charitable contributions
made within the taxable year. Sec. 170(a). For charitable
4 It has not been satisfactorily explained how
petitioners have copies of their 1989 check carbons, nor why such
evidence is not available for the substantiation of the other
items in dispute herein.
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