The House Ways and Means Committee debated and advanced five bills largely focused around disclosure requirements for nonprofit organizations and increasing penalties for the unauthorized sharing of taxpayer information.
Three of the bills (H.R. 8290, H.R. 8292, and H.R. 8314) were reported favorably with strong bipartisan support:
- H.R. 8290, the Foreign Grant Reporting Act, would create reporting requirements for grants made by U.S. tax-exempt organizations to foreign entities.
- H.R. 8314, the No Foreign Election Interference Act, aims to increase guardrails around U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations that accept donations from foreign entities to prevent them then giving to U.S. political action committees. H.R. 8292, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, would increase penalties for unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information from government employees and contractors up to five years in prison to 10 years, and treat each leak as a separate violation. Fines for unauthorized sharing of taxpayer information would also be increased to up to $250,000, from $5,000.
Two other bills advanced out of committee along party line votes:
- H.R. 8291, the End Zuckerbucks Act, would forbid 501(c)(3) organizations from providing funding for election administration on the state and local level.
- H.R. 8293, the American Donor Privacy and Foreign Funding Transparency Act, would require reporting of foreign donations by U.S. tax-exempt organizations, while preventing federal agencies from collecting information or requiring information from tax-exempt organizations on U.S. citizen donors.
Grant Thornton Insight:
The three bipartisan bills could gain traction in the future, though they would likely need a broader legislative vehicle to move. With the extenders currently stalled, there may not be many opportunities to move tax provisions this year.
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