The Donald Trump administration will end a requirement that certain nonprofit organizations must disclose names of large donors to the Internal Revenue Service; the change would allow some political groups to shield funding sources, The New York Times reported.
The change would affect labor unions, social clubs and many political groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, the report said.
Treasury officials said that the change would cut down on compliance costs and protect privacy, and added that the IRS would still be allowed to request donor information from groups in the case of tax scrutiny, The Times reported.
"Americans shouldn’t be required to send the IRS information that it doesn’t need to effectively enforce our tax laws, and the IRS simply does not need tax returns with donor names and addresses to do its job in this area," said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a Monday statement, The Times reported.
Critics said that illegal donations from domestic and foreign contributors would now be more likely. "There’s a lot to this administrative rule under the semblance of reducing paperwork… it adds another layer of opaqueness to the tax-exempt funding," Steven Rosenthal at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington said, The Times reported.
Conservatives and Republicans in Congress have long called for the change, the report said.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the decision was a win for free speech. "It’s particularly welcome news to those of us who are intently focused on defending the First Amendment, for those of us who raised concerns during the last administration about activist regulators punishing free speech and free association," McConnell said, The Washington Times reported.
Freedom Partners Executive Vice President Nathan Nascimento said the decision is “a positive step toward protecting the First Amendment rights of Americans,” The Washington Times reported.
"This was the right decision because citizens shouldn’t fear harassment or persecution over their beliefs," Nascimento said, The Times reported.
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