{"id":186199,"date":"2021-05-31T15:11:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=f36a0e368ba5e93b82f626a5af7f0894"},"modified":"2021-05-31T15:11:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:11:41","slug":"gop-bill-would-turn-trump-admin-guidance-on-dark-money-irs-filings-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/31\/gop-bill-would-turn-trump-admin-guidance-on-dark-money-irs-filings-into-law\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Bill Would Turn Trump Admin Guidance on \u201cDark Money\u201d IRS Filings Into Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\"The<\/a>

Senate Minority Leader <\/span>Mitch McConnell<\/a> <\/span>(R-Ky.) is moving to protect \u201cdark money<\/a>\u201d donors by supporting a bill that would continue concealing their identities from the Internal Revenue Service. <\/p>\n

The \u201cDon\u2019t Weaponize the IRS Act<\/a>,\u201d introduced last week by Sen. <\/span>Mike Braun<\/a> <\/span>(R-Ind.), would prevent the IRS from mandating that 501(c)(4) nonprofits identify their top donors in filings to the agency, turning IRS guidance issued under former president <\/span>Donald Trump<\/a> <\/span>into law. <\/p>\n

McConnell, Braun and the 43 other Republican senators who signed on as co-sponsors say the measure would protect outside groups from discrimination by the IRS. The agency previously <\/span>apologized<\/a> <\/span>for slow-walking conservative groups\u2019 applications for nonprofit status and <\/span>leaking nonprofit donors<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics has no place in federal tax compliance efforts,\u201d said Sen. <\/span>Mike Crapo<\/a> <\/span>(R-Idaho), one of the bill\u2019s co-sponsors, in a <\/span>statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen what happens when the IRS misuses information in its possession to target specific groups or individuals. Providing the IRS with additional private information that it doesn\u2019t even need to perform its tax administration responsibilities would only further put the privacy and constitutional rights of American citizens at risk,\u201d Crapo continued.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Trump administration issued guidance instructing the IRS to <\/span>stop requiring<\/a> <\/span>nonprofits \u2014 including politically active dark money groups spending on elections \u2014 to disclose the names and addresses of top donors to the agency, though they were <\/span>still required to disclose the sums of money<\/a> <\/span>included in each large contribution. A subsequent Senate vote to reverse the move passed with unanimous support from Democrats along with Sen. <\/span>Susan Collins <\/span><\/a>(R-Maine), but the proposal fizzled out in the Republican-controlled House. <\/p>\n

In late April this year, 38 Democratic senators sent a <\/span>letter<\/a> <\/span>to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig calling on them to roll back the Trump anti-disclosure rule. <\/p>\n

\u201cEliminating the requirement that tax-exempt groups disclose basic information about the source of their contributions undercuts efforts to enforce prohibitions against foreign spending in U.S. elections and detect other illegal activity,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cIt also undermines the ability of the U.S. government to police the wave of \u2018dark money\u2019 that has flooded our political system in the decade since the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 26, more than 30 House Democrats sent another <\/span>letter<\/a> <\/span>to Yellen and Retting reiterating that message.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs secret campaign contributions continue to pour into federal elections, this IRS rule is a major step backwards for transparency and will allow dark money to continue to corrode our political system,\u201d the members wrote. <\/p>\n

The White House has not responded to the letters, though President Joe Biden <\/span>has said<\/a> <\/span>that he supports donor disclosure requirements for groups that spend more than $10,000 on elections and Yellen has expressed <\/span>openness<\/a> <\/span>to addressing nonprofit donor disclosure.<\/p>\n

According to an <\/span>OpenSecrets report<\/a>, dark money groups spent a record $1 billion during the 2020 election cycle. Groups that do not disclose their donors reported spending a combined total of nearly $119 on direct election spending and poured hundreds of millions more into undisclosed ad spending and contributions to super PACs. Most of that sum went to Democrats, and a significant amount supported Biden\u2019s election efforts. <\/p>\n

Democrats\u2019 hallmark campaign finance legislation, the \u2018For the People Act<\/a>,\u2019 would make sweeping changes to election law and require all nonprofits that spend more than $10,000 on elections to disclose the names and addresses of donors who give more than $10,000.<\/p>\n

GOP lawmakers <\/span>say<\/a> <\/span>the For the People Act would undermine privacy and free speech protections for donors to outside spending groups. They argue that disclosure requirements discourage potential donors from making contributions \u2014 which Republicans say are a form of constitutionally protected speech \u2014 out of fear of recrimination from their political opponents. <\/p>\n

The most recent iterations of the For the People Act exempt donors who would be subject to \u201cserious threats, harassment, or reprisals\u201d due to disclosure from having their names or addresses disclosed under the new requirements. <\/p>\n

McConnell has <\/span>long opposed<\/a> <\/span>efforts aimed at increasing donor transparency and getting dark money out of politics. During a Senate Rules Committee hearing, McConnell accused Democrats of using the For the People Act to help liberal candidates. A dark money group with close ties to McConnell <\/span>spent nearly $2 million<\/a> <\/span>on campaign ads opposing the For the People Act in swing states across the country. <\/p>\n

The Don\u2019t Weaponize the IRS Act picked up <\/span>endorsements<\/a> <\/span>from three 501(c)(3) nonprofits, one super PAC and seven 501(c)(4) spending groups, all of which are aligned with conservative causes or Republican candidates. Many of these groups have also <\/span>spoken out against<\/a> <\/span>Biden\u2019s plan to beef up the IRS\u2019 funding and enforcement powers, a measure which Democrats say will help crackdown on tax evasion and raise revenue to fund government programs. <\/p>\n

Many of these groups have also embraced similar legislation at the state level as lawmakers across the country consider similar bills prohibiting state government entities from requiring nonprofits to disclose their donors. <\/p>\n

Only five Republican Senators did not co-sponsor the bill: Sens. <\/span>Dan Sullivan<\/a> <\/span>(Alaska), <\/span>Lindsey Graham<\/a> <\/span>(S.C.), <\/span>Mitt Romney<\/a> <\/span>(Utah), <\/span>Rob Portman<\/a> <\/span>(Ohio) and Collins.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Don\u2019t Weaponize the IRS Act would prevent the IRS from mandating 501(c)(4) nonprofits to identify their top donors.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1874,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7546,10342,27145,4402,9744,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186200,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186199\/revisions\/186200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}