- 6 - A canceled check; (2) a receipt or letter from the donee charitable organization showing the name of the donee, and the date and the amount of the contribution; or (3) other reliable records showing the name of the donee, and the date and the amount of the contribution. Id. Petitioners’ church donations do not meet the requirements of section 1.170A-13(a)(1), Income Tax Regs. See Blair v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1988-581. Where a charitable contribution is made of property other than money, section 170 allows a deduction of the fair market value of the property at the time of contribution. See sec. 1.170A-1(c)(1), Income Tax Regs. Petitioners bear the burden of proving both the fact that the contribution was made and the fair market value of the contributed property. See Rule 142(a); Zmuda v. Commissioner, 79 T.C. 714, 726 (1982), affd. 731 F.2d 1417 (9th Cir. 1984). During the examination of petitioners’ return, respondent asked them for an itemized list of the values of the items they donated. Petitioner testified that “And what I did at the time was I divided it by the number of gifts that I had given to these charities.” He also testified that he was told that “certain receipts I should only claim $200 because that’s the total value of those gifts, and some gifts I could have claimed up to $499”, but that he did not know it at the time. Petitioner testifiedPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011