response 61 of 115:

Feb 12 05:35 UTC 1999

You have to substantiate any donations of any size, and receipts are a good
way to do that. That $250 point is for when the statement from the donee
must specify particular information beyond just a receipt. We (MKC) just
include the necessary boilerplate in our standard acknowledgement statement
for any size donation - which also gives a chance to send a nice "thank
you", and encourage future donations. 

response 63 of 115:

Feb 14 00:19 UTC 1999

I was at the meeting with Ms. Dodea.  She was about as adamant on the
"you must send paper receipts" issue as it is possible to be while
remaining seated.

When I'm doing my taxes, I want to have a receipt for anything I deduct.
I think Rane's reading of the $250 rule is a more accurate reflection of
IRS policy.  You have to be able to substantiate all deductions.

I think the policy as it stands is good, and absolutely standard
practice.  I suppose we could consider a motion to raise the level from
$75 to something higher, but I don't really see the point.

response 65 of 115:

Feb 14 02:09 UTC 1999

Can someone point to something that the IRS has published that requires
receipts for anything under $250?

response 67 of 115:

Feb 14 18:43 UTC 1999

Re #64:  I was planning on putting the value items sold for on Tim's receipt,
since he requested it, and adding a few sentences like this:

These items were donated to Cyberspace Communications and sold at auction. 
The prices listed are the amounts for which they were sold.  It is up to
the donor to decide the fair market value of the items for purposes of
income tax deduction.

Rane & Jan, do you think that would be all right, or do we need to put
the prices in a separate letter?

response 69 of 115:

Feb 14 20:35 UTC 1999

Of course a non-profit is not *required* to mail receipts. The law only
requires documentation if a person wishes to declare a donation as
deductible. However non-profits have limited resources and time, and time
wasted determining whether someone wants a receipt or not is time wasted.
Do you want to increase the time-wasting of a volunteer non-profit?

1040 recordkeeping instructions are on pages A4 and A5. It says "keep
cancelled checks, receipts, or other reliable written records showing the
name of the organization and the date and amount given" for gifts of cash,
and "keep a receipt or written statement...that shows the organization's
name and address, the date and location of the gift, and a description of
the property". These apply ONLY if you wish to deduct.  There are
additional rules to make gifts deductible for gifts over $250, $500, and
$5,000. 

They IRS does not seem to have caught up to whether an e-mail receipt is a
written record for this purpose (it surely is both written and a record).
The information that has to be given is clearly stated, so I see no reason
that an e-mail receipt would not be OK. Nothing is said about receipts or
statements being "signed". 

response 71 of 115:

Feb 14 23:56 UTC 1999

Am I one of the four who wanted a receipt?  (I actually specified that I
wanted whatever I need to take a deduction; now that I've seen the rules
more clearly, I'm happy relying on the canceled check.)

Next time around, I probably won't have any reason to itemize.

response 73 of 115:

Feb 15 05:20 UTC 1999

As I said before, paper receipts are sent my most non-profits as public
relations tools, usually including some other information about the
organization and suggesting further donations if possibe (of $10____,
$20____, $50____, $100____, Other____), and along with the message they
send the receipt. (We just donated some old vacuum cleaners to the
PTO Thrift Shop, and they gave us a receipt without our asking saying
what we donated, and including a note that we would have to set "fair
market value" on the items for tax purposes.)

response 75 of 115:

Feb 15 12:19 UTC 1999

I suspect that reading & responding to this item has taken more of Mark's time
than sending out a lot of receipts, though I could be wrong.  Think of all
the wasted electrons, too.

response 77 of 115:

Feb 15 15:20 UTC 1999

        Ditto.

response 79 of 115:

Feb 17 15:49 UTC 1999

Since the board will reconsider receipts, I made a few more calls.  NEW center
library is not there until 11.  American Lung always sends receipts but they
don't know if it is required.
        Call United Way and talked to Dennis O'Brien of financial and
information services.  (He was interested to hear about grex, has not used
the internet and thought he needed an ISP.  He may call us for a modem and
help signing on to grex.)  He has worked in the non-profit donations field
for 30 years, previously at Child and Family Services and at Cathlic Family
Services.  United Way is the most complicated because people donate not only
by check, but from their pay.  They can use paystubs combined with a pledge
cardd for proof of donating, or cancelled checks if they donate that way. 
United Way gets thousands of donations a year and never mails out a letter
of receipt to anyone donating under $250.  For donors over $250, he had never
heard that the nonprofit is required to mail receipts, but he knows that the
donors need receipts if they itemize on federal taxes, so they automatically
send out receipts to donors of $250 or more.
        Other donors who wish to itemize are only required by the IRS to save
a cancelled check.  DOnors of $250 get a letter stating that they received
no goods or services for their donation, which letter is required if you
itemize, but the organization is not required to send it if you don't ask for
it (They send them anyway).
        He repeated several times that United Way only sends receipts for $250
or more, and that he has never heard of any law requiring any nonprofits to
send receipts for any size donations, they just send them out for large
amounts anyway on the assumption that donors will want the receipts.

I therefore propose that the grex treasurer continue to send out email
receipts for donations of any size, and that these email receipts mention that
a paper receipt is available upon request, but that the IRS accepts cancelled
checks as proof of donations of amounts under $250.
        You may confirm this information with Dennis at the United Way in Ann
Arbor.  He does not know how to join coop conference (yet).

        If the treasurer wants to follow United Way policy and send out a paper
receipt to anyone who donates $250 or over in one year, whether or not they
request it, I will not object.  (BUt I will be sure never to donate $250).

        If anyone wants they can call the NEW center reference librarian after
11 am to cross-check this information.  Dennis O'Brien said that if he was
required to mail everyone who donated a paper receipt, he would have quit the
nonprofit business long ago, and that the IRS made their $250 rule to save
the nonprofits from wasting their donations by spending them on postage and
paper (and the treasurer's time).  He was surprised at our low budget.

response 81 of 115:

Feb 18 02:03 UTC 1999

Well, no, clearly we didn't get the same story from Ms. Dodea.

That sounds like pretty good info, Sindi, thanks for accumulating it.

response 83 of 115:

Feb 18 19:46 UTC 1999

Is it possible to ask Ms. Dodea where she got her information?  Some of the
places I called said they considered it good practice (but certainly not
mandatory) to send receipts for donations, but not for legal reasons, only
for reasons of publicity.  Maybe that is what Ms. Dodea was adamant about?
If she cannot point to any law requiring receipts, must we send them?