The IRS continues to clamp down on charitable donations. Even small cash donations aren’t exempt from the strict recordkeeping rules, according to IRS’s final regulations.
For charitable monetary gifts of any size, you cannot claim a deduction unless you have a canceled check, a bank record, a credit card statement, or a written receipt or e-mail from the charity with its name, date and amount of the gift. Pay stubs or W-2s work for payroll deduction donations. A blank pledge card from the donee for the donor to fill out doesn’t meet the rules.
A contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the donee is also required for all gifts of $250 or more, describing the donation and whether the donor got anything in return.
A client and I have been fighting with the IRS with contemporaneous statements, only to have them disallowed. The IRS argued that value was given for the donation. Make sure all records are clean and complete.