WASHINGTON, DC – Having blocked Obama Administration efforts to call on charities to collect personal and sensitive information from their donors, Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today introduced a bill to block similar efforts in the future to avoid adding a costly burden to charitable organizations and having a chilling effect on charitable giving.

“The IRS does not need detailed information on who is making donations to particular charities,” Roberts said. “The IRS has already threatened donors to groups that it doesn’t like. I don’t think we can trust them with a new source of data on donors. There also is no assurance that the agency will stop at this voluntary rule and move to make such reporting mandatory for all contributions and all charities.”

In 2015, the Obama Administration’s IRS proposed a new voluntary rule that called on charities to ask for additional personal donor information including Social Security numbers for any donation more than $250.00. After Senator Roberts and others offered legislation approved by the House and out of the Senate Finance committee to stop the rule, the IRS withdrew it.

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.

Instead, the proposed IRS regulation would allow a charity to substantiate charitable contributions by filing a return with the IRS that includes detailed donor information. If the charity elects to file the return, it must provide: the donor’s name and address, the donor’s Social Security number, the amount of cash and a description of any property other than cash contributed, whether the charity provided any goods or services in consideration for the contribution, and a description and good faith estimate of the value of any goods or services provided by the charity.

“Given that the agency has not yet adequately addressed the issues surrounding breaches of existing taxpayer information, a point the IRS readily acknowledges, and states that the existing system of substantiating charitable contributions works well, there is no compelling tax administration or enforcement reason to move forward with this proposal.”

Senator Roberts’ bill simply blocks the proposed rule from taking effect and maintains current law.

 “This rule is ridiculous. If the intent is to crack down on fraud, the IRS should not create rules that will add to the problem,” Roberts said. “They have already proven that the IRS itself can’t safeguard personal and private information from abuse. Why would they burden non-profits with this collecting information that will be expensive to keep, could discourage donations and would encourage hacking?”

Senator Roberts went on to say, “This rule could dramatically reduce people’s willingness to make donations, and burden charities, many of which are small, volunteer operated organizations with new costly administrative costs. The collection and safekeeping issues surrounding this proposal could very significantly stress the good works done by our charitable sector.”

Senator Roberts has been an outspoken critic of the IRS following its targeting of conservative groups for further review of their taxes, its failure to protect sensitive taxpayer data from hacking and abuse, and its rewarding of personnel who owe back taxes or have tax violations on their record. Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance which handles taxes and the IRS.

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