Make sure your charitable contribution acknowledgment is complete.

The devil is most definitely in the details regarding income tax deductions for charitable contributions.

When you give more than $250 to a charity, the tax code says you cannot deduct that contribution unless the charity gives you a contemporaneous written acknowledgment for it.

The acknowledgment must contain three statements.

First, it must identify the amount of cash and a description (but not the value) of any property other than cash contributed.

Second, it must state whether the donee organization provided any goods or services in consideration, in whole or in part, for the contributions.

Third, a description and good faith estimate of the value of any goods or services provided to the donor.

It seems like three easy things to work into an acknowledgment form, but recently the tax court got nitpicky. It denied a donor’s entire deduction to a museum because the acknowledgment didn’t say explicitly that the museum hadn’t provided any goods or services in consideration of the contribution.

Talk with an experienced charitable planning attorney if you contribute significantly to charity. I’m here to help.