A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from requiring that the identity of contributors to 501(c) organizations be included in annual returns.
Peter J. RoskamThis would keep most donations to nonprofits secret
Nonprofit organizations currently must report donations of more than $5,000 on their annual IRS Form 990 (Schedule B).
Though information on the Schedule B must be supplied to the IRS, it does not have to be revealed to the public.
The bill would prevent the IRS from requesting this information at all.
Some of these organizations exist to channel anonymous campaign contributions into Super PACs, which can raise unlimited money to influence a campaign, but must disclose all contributions. If the contributor is a 501(c) nonprofit, the organization is listed as the contributor, while the contributors to the 501(c) itself remain anonymous.
If this bill becomes law, it would make both legal contributions and illegal ones (from foreign governments and businesses, for example) impossible to detect.
More information
You can find more details about this bill at GovTrack.us.