WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today announced his legislation to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from threatening the privacy and security of charitable donors’ personal information was approved by the Senate Finance Committee. The legislation passed as an amendment to the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2016.

“Last year the IRS proposed an unnecessary and burdensome rule that threatened the security of charitable donors’ private information and would have had a chilling effect on charitable donations," said Roberts. "Luckily they scrapped the plan, and my amendment will prohibit the IRS from simply recycling this short-sided plan and proposing a similar rule in the future.”

The attempt by the IRS to change charitable donation reporting rules began in September of 2015, when the IRS proposed a rule calling on charitable organizations to ask for additional personal donor information including the name, address, Social Security or tax identification number of any donor making a contribution of $250.00 or more. Under current law, the responsibility to substantiate the contribution is on the donor. Most non-profits provide that information to the donors for their record-keeping.

Roberts first introduced a stand-alone bill to block this rule in December 2015 and spoke on the Senate floor about the bill. The speech can be viewed here.

Due to strong opposition to the proposal, in January, 2016, the IRS decided to withdraw the proposed rule. Roberts then said, “Thankfully, the IRS saw how problematic the proposal was and withdrew it from their agenda.”

The Roberts amendment approved by the Finance committee today is similar to his stand-alone bill and eliminates IRS authority to require detailed donor information returns from charities, but maintains current law and procedures.

“My amendment now in the mark makes sure that the IRS has clear direction on how best to approach taxpayer substantiation requirements,” Roberts said.

Roberts’ full remarks as prepared are below:

Mr. Chairman, I would like to briefly discuss an amendment I had offered, which I am pleased has been accepted into your revised chairman’s mark. I thank you and Ranking Member Wyden for your support on this issue.

I also want to thank Senator Crapo for his support of this proposal.

My amendment addresses an issue that arose last year concerning proposed IRS regulations on the substantiation requirements for charitable contributions.

Under the proposal, charitable organizations would have been required to provide to the IRS the name, address, Social Security or tax identification number of any donor making a contribution of $250 or more.

The IRS proposal raised serious concerns about privacy and the security of sensitive financial data of the donors to charitable groups.

The IRS proposal also would burden charities, many of which are small, volunteer operated organizations, with new administrative costs and potential liability for theft of the data.

No surprise, the charitable sector rose in uniform opposition to the measure. I also offered legislation to block consideration of the ill-advised IRS plan.

Thankfully, the IRS saw how problematic the proposal was and withdrew it from their agenda.

However, at a time when the IRS and all other financial record keepers are under attack from identity thieves and hackers, the amendment now in the mark makes sure that the IRS has clear direction on how best to approach taxpayer substantiation requirements.

The amendment eliminates IRS authority to require detailed donor information returns from charities, but maintains current law and procedures on taxpayer attestation of their donations to charities.

This amendment will help to safeguard critical taxpayer information, such Social Security numbers and other sensitive taxpayer information.

Senator Roberts has been an outspoken critic of the IRS. Roberts took aim at the scandal-ridden IRS by introducing a bicameral bill, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act would stop cold further attempts by IRS to exploit bureaucratic loopholes to restrict the free speech rights of the same types of tax-exempt social welfare organizations. Senator Roberts also introduced the “Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act” to require federal employees to be current on their federal income taxes, and would prevent federal personnel who are delinquent in paying a federal tax liability from receiving a bonus or cash award.

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