- 7 -
which an estimate of the amount of a claimed deduction may be
made. Vanicek v. Commissioner, supra. Without such a basis, any
allowance would amount to “unguided largesse.” Williams v.
United States, 245 F.2d 559, 560 (5th Cir. 1957). The
aforementioned documents provided by petitioners in support of
Mr. Claborn’s cash donations, which we believe were not prepared
contemporaneously with those donations, are not reliable enough
to support all of the claimed cash donations. Specifically, we
do not find the documents reliable enough to support the claimed
$1,925 in “Church Offering” cash donations, especially in light
of the materiality of the amount claimed and the 20 separate $25
contributions that petitioners made to their church in 2003 by
check through the use of tithing envelopes. In order to satisfy
the regulatory substantiation requirements, checks, receipts, or
other reliable contemporaneous records were required. See sec.
1.170A-13(a)(1), Income Tax Regs. As a result, we do not
exercise our discretionary authority pursuant to Cohan with
respect to those cash donations. However, because petitioners
were regular churchgoers with two children, we do find the
evidence reliable enough to support the claimed 42 separate $2
donations for “Lee Anderson’s Class,” and the 42 separate $2
donations and the single $1 donation for “Children’s Class.” We
therefore conclude that petitioners are entitled to deduct $169
of cash charitable contributions.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 10, 2007