April 28, 2016

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative,

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support H.R. 5053, the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, during the full committee mark up on April 28, 2016.  The bill, as currently drafted, will protect the privacy of donors to charitable organizations by preventing the Secretary of the Treasury from requiring identifying information of any contributors to 501(c)(3) groups.

Schedule B of the annual IRS Form 990 requires that tax-exempt groups provide the name and address of donors who contribute $5,000 or more.  However, there is no governmental interest to collect that information, which is not required to be publicly disclosed.  Even the IRS has suggested that Schedule B should be eliminated.

I urge you to support H.R. 5053 in order to prevent the IRS from collecting unnecessary information and to protect charitable donors’ private information.  All votes on H.R. 5053 with be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2016 Congressional Ratings.   

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW