Wednesday, December 16, 2015
The IRS Scandal, Day 951
Wall Street Journal editorial, The IRS Targets Political Donors:
The IRS regulatory assault on political nonprofits continues, albeit out of the media glare. In September the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department proposed a rule to give 501(c)(3) charities the “option” of filing detailed reports on every donor who contributes more than $250. These reports would include names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Oh, oh.
While the IRS says the rule is “voluntary,” in government that’s often a prelude to compulsory. The legitimate fear in the nonprofit world, on the right and left, is that this is a first step toward making such donor lists mandatory, and then applying the requirement to every nonprofit—including the conservative social-welfare organizations that the IRS helped to shut down in the 2012 presidential election. ...
Many taxpayers will also lack confidence that nonprofits, which are often small operations staffed by volunteers, can safeguard their information. The proposed regulation is an invitation to fraud and identity theft by creating an opportunity for scam artists to claim to be charities and solicit Social Security numbers.
This year the IRS was forced by public outrage to shelve a different regulation that sought to limit the amount of political activity social-welfare organizations can engage in. The new rule looks like an attempt to achieve a similar result by drying up contributions. The rule’s public comment period ends Wednesday, but Democrats and Republicans in Congress should work together to put this one on ice.
- The IRS Scandal, Day 950 (Dec. 15, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 949 (Dec. 14, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 948 (Dec. 13, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 947 (Dec. 12, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 946 (Dec. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 945 (Dec. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 944 (Dec. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 943 (Dec. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 942 (Dec. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 941 (Dec. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 940 (Dec. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 939 (Dec. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 938 (Dec. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 937 (Dec. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 936 (Dec. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 935 (Nov. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 934 (Nov. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 933 (Nov. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 932 (Nov. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 931 (Nov. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 930 (Nov. 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 929 (Nov. 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 928 (Nov. 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 927 (Nov. 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 926 (Nov. 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 925 (Nov. 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 924 (Nov. 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 923 (Nov. 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 922 (Nov. 17, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 921 (Nov. 16, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 920 (Nov. 15, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 919 (Nov. 14, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 918 (Nov. 13, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 917 (Nov. 12, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 916 (Nov. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 915 (Nov. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 914 (Nov. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 913 (Nov. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 912 (Nov. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 911 (Nov. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 910 (Nov. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 909 (Nov. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 908 (Nov. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 907 (Nov. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 906 (Nov. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 905 (Oct. 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 904 (Oct. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 903 (Oct. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 902 (Oct. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 901 (Oct. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/the-irs-scandal-day-951.html
Comments
If a Republican administration were in power this would be Big News in the MSM. Democrats get full media protection. Dems sure got it good.
Posted by: VoteOutIncumbents | Dec 16, 2015 8:09:58 AM
Some commenters indicated concern over the IRS having their Social Security Numbers (which is absurd because the IRS already has that for anyone who's filed a tax return), but this article makes a much better argument that this will require charities to collect this data, which is a much bigger problem. Charities shouldn't be required to collect and then have to protect this sensitive data from all of its donors. A simple name and address is more than sufficient for purposes of tracking the accuracy of charitable donations.
Posted by: anon | Dec 16, 2015 5:47:50 AM
Paul -thanks so much for your hard work keeping this issue in front of the public. You're a true patriot.
Posted by: Bill Hocter | Dec 16, 2015 9:27:16 AM