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§ 21.1 SUBSTANTIATION AND OTHER RECEIPT REQUIREMENTSare paid by withholding from wages, the deduction from each paycheck istreated as a separate payment. 35The written acknowledgment of a separate gift is not required to take any particularform. Thus, acknowledgments may be made by letter, postcard, electronicmail, 36 or computer-generated form. A donee charitable organization may prepare aseparate acknowledgment for each contribution, or may provide donors with periodic(such as annual) acknowledgments that set forth the required information foreach contribution of $250 or more made by the donor during the period. 37It is the donor’s responsibility to obtain the substantiation documentationand maintain it in his or her records. (Again, the charitable contribution deductiondepends on compliance with these rules.)The substantiation rules do not impose on charitable organizations anyrequirement as to the reporting of gift information to the IRS. Charitable organizationspotentially have the option to avoid these rules by filing an informationreturn with the IRS, reporting information sufficient to substantiate the amountof the deductible contribution. 38This substantiation requirement is in addition to• the rules that require the provision of certain information if the amount ofthe claimed charitable deduction for all noncash contributions exceeds$500, 39 and• the rules that apply to noncash gifts exceeding $5,000 per item or group ofsimilar items (other than certain publicly traded securities), under which theservices of a qualified appraiser are required and the charitable donee mustacknowledge receipt of the gift and provide certain other information. 4035 H. Rep. No. 103-213, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. 565, n. 29 (1993). As for credit card rebate plans (the details ofwhich are the subject of § 3.1(h)), in an instance of a lump-sum payment of $250 or more by the sponsoringcompany to a charitable organization, the cardholder must obtain the requisite substantiation of the gift fromthe charity for the gift to be deductible. Priv. Ltr. Rul. 9623035. The company thus must supply donee organizationswith the amounts of cardholders’ contributions, as well as the names and addresses of the cardholders,to enable the charities to provide the required contemporaneous written acknowledgment.36 The IRS first announced that charitable organizations can substantiate gifts electronically when it posted the advancetext of Charitable Contributions—Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements (Publication 1771) on itsWeb site in March 2002. There, the agency wrote that an organization “can provide either a paper copy of the acknowledgmentto the donor, or an organization can provide the acknowledgment electronically, such as via e-mailaddressed to the donor.” Substantiation of charitable gifts by e-mail message was thereafter referenced in Notice2002-25, 2002-1 C.B. 743). Given the way the law is evolving, the IRS had no choice but to allow e-mail substantiation.See, e.g., Rio Properties, Inc. v. Rio Int’l Interlink, 284 F.3d 1007 (9th Cir. 2002), holding that a court, incertain circumstances, may order service of process on foreign business entities by e-mail.The IRS first signaled that it would allow substantiation of charitable gifts by e-mail in 2000 (INFO 2000-0070). Subsequently, in a solicitation of public comment concerning application of the federal tax law, governingtax-exempt organizations, to activities they conduct on the Internet (Ann. 2000-84, 2000-42 I.R.B. 385), the agencyposed a series of questions, including this: “Does a donor satisfy the requirement under [IRC §] 170(f)(8) fora written acknowledgment of a contribution of $250 or more with a printed webpage confirmation or copy of aconfirmation e-mail from the donee organization?” As to the latter approach, the answer now is yes.37 H. Rep. No. 103-213, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. at 565 n. 32 (1993). A charitable organization that knowingly providesa false written substantiation document to a donor may be subject to the penalty for aiding and abettingan understatement of tax liability. IRC § 6701; see § 10.14.38 IRC § 170(f)(8)(D). This approach has not, however, been implemented by regulations and currently is notavailable. Earlier versions of this requirement would have caused donee charitable organizations to file informationreturns with the IRS reflecting contributions made to them.39 See § 21.1(a), text accompanied by notes 22–27.40 See § 21.2. 587