In 2012, I reported to you about the fact that many charities when filing their Form 990 tax returns which are required to be filed by tax-exempt organizations were including the Social Security numbers of people making charitable donations.  These Form 990 tax returns are open to public inspection by anyone including identity thieves, who are able to take that information and make the charitable donors victims of identity theft.  Charities are not required to include the Social Security numbers in their Form 990 filings although many have done so.

In September, the IRS proposed a new rule that would have required charities to collect and store the Social Security numbers of donors whose individual donations exceeded $250.  This rule made no sense whatsoever and merely increased the likelihood of identity theft and the temptation of identity thieves to hack the computers of charities.  Fortunately, the response in the charitable community was uniformly negative to the proposal and yesterday, the IRS cancelled the new rule before it ever took effect.

TIPS

As much as possible you should limit the places that have access to your Social Security number.  The more places that have this information, the greater is your risk of identity theft.  There is no reason for a charity to which you are making a donation to have your Social Security number so if it is asked for when you make a charitable donation, my advice is to refuse to give it to them.  If that is unacceptable to them, find another charity.