A donor who didn’t meet the substantiation rules for a charitable contribution of a land easement pursuant to a settlement agreement he reached with a county to limit any future development of his property. The Tax Court denied his write-off because he did not get a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the donee that no goods or services were given for his donation.
Charitable donations are under extreme scrutiny from the IRS. This is an area that the i’s need to be dotted and t’s crossed. Especially if you are looking at large values of non cash items.
(DiDonato, TC Memo. 2011-153)