Nation of Change: IRS changes rules to critical disclosure requirements
By Ashley Curtin
According to NPR, “501(c)(3) charities will still have to identify their most generous donors to the IRS, but 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) business associations will not.” …
[T]he IRS said the new rules will create a “significant reform to protect personal information.” Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, said it “will in no way limit transparency.” …
David Keating, president of the anti-regulation Institute for Free Speech, said “donor disclosure to the IRS ‘can easily be abused to suppress First Amendment rights,'” NPR reported.
“Americans shouldn’t be required to send the IRS information that it doesn’t need to effectively enforce our tax laws, and the IRS simply does not need tax returns with donor names and addresses to do its job in this area,” Mnuchin said.
While the groups will no longer be required to provide the identity of their donors, they “will still have to keep donor information in their own records and make it available for the IRS when the agency needs the information in audits of taxpayers,” The Hill reported.
