Ever since a report from the Action Institute that the IRS was considering a regulation that would require the Social Security Number of any donor making a contribution of $250 or more the opposition from the nonprofit community has been fierce. The most common criticism has been that it would lead to a massive shift towards donations just under the limit from donors that would otherwise have given much larger amount. In addition, concerns about the ability of many nonprofits to safely store the data created much consternation among groups such as the National Council of Nonprofits. Critics have also voiced concern that this is a political move meant to expose donors to certain nonprofits with the libertarian group Freedom Works pointing out that the IRS has targeted groups that were critical of the service in the past. No matter the motivation, however, the fallout to the nonprofit community from a regulation such as this would be tremendous and severely cut back on contributions to many worthy causes that have little or no political agenda. Let us hope this proposal remains just that, a proposal.
See Travis H. Brown, IRS Now Complicating Charitable Giving, What’s Next?, Forbes, December 28, 2015.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
