By: Philip Hackney
August 21, 2026
Someone leaked to CBS reporters regarding a proposal the IRS is allegedly considering. It sounds like the idea is that the IRS would promulgate rules requiring charities to disclose if any of their officers or directors have been convicted of financial or terrorism crimes.
“The Trump administration is weighing a proposal to require nonprofits to disclose in their annual tax filings whether their top officials have been convicted of certain financial or terrorism-related crimes, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told CBS News.
The IRS disclosure requirement would be added to the Form 990, the annual return that nonprofit groups file with the agency, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. Federal officials have viewed it as an effort to pressure tax-exempt groups to cut ties with people who have such criminal records and ensure that donors can make informed decisions about how to best direct their money, the sources said.”
My recollection is the IRS might have considered such a proposal in the past but rejected it. One of the challenges raised in the article is the fact that it is hard to find a legal anchor for why the charity would need to disclose this information.
Interestingly the person who disclosed this information to the reporters seems to believe that the IRS could revoke the status of any charity that failed to disclose this information. Given that the justification for including it on the form is hard to make, I don’t see a judge concluding that a failure to disclose this information was a material matter and that would make revocation on that basis alone quite sketchy.