More Privacy For “Dark Money” Donors

Dark money just got a whole lot darker on Monday, thanks to President Trump’s Treasury Department.

Reuters reports that the Treasury decided that certain tax-exempt foundations and politically active non-profits, like the NRA and Planned Parenthood, will not be required to identify their big-time donors to the IRS. Conservatives have welcomed this new change as a victory for free speech and privacy. “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,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

The Washington Post explains these new rules in depth:

• “Wealthy donors can give unlimited sums of money to politically active nonprofits registered under sections of the Internal Revenue Service code, without their names or addresses being revealed in the nonprofits’ public tax filings.”
• “These donors’ names, addresses and donation amounts were previously reported to the IRS, but the IRS would redact the names and addresses for public release. With this policy change, the organizations will still be required to retain the donor information, but no longer have to submit it to the IRS.”

Many have fiercely criticized the new policy, saying that it will encourage the flow of “dark money” from questionable sources. Progressives are particularly concerned that it would make it easier for foreign actors or governments to pump money into American politics, and influencing future elections. According to The Post, “some tax experts raised concerns the new rule would make it more difficult for authorities to discover fraudulent activity, by depriving the IRS of a tool to track the flow of cash.”

New York Magazine notes how the Treasury’s decision will be another severe point of contention between conservatives and progressives. Liberals see it as a further threat to the fairness and integrity of our political system, while “conservatives look at the same issue and tend to worry about the persecution of wealthy people by class warriors in and out of government.” Either way, our government’s financial dealings have the potential to get all the more shady.