Opinion: Small Charities Shouldn’t Fall Victim to Government Intrusion

Congress’s requirement that even the smallest of charities should now be required to file basic tax information is flawed, write Suzanne Garment and Leslie Lenkowsky, in an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal.

They say the requirement may portend a “worrisome shift toward greater governmental involvement in the affairs of groups whose value lies in their independence from the state.”

What’s more, they say, small charities at risk of losing their tax-exempt status are rarely the culprits of wrongdoing, so the Internal Revenue Service should instead focus on monitoring large organizations.

Ms. Garment and Mr. Lenkowsky (who is also a Chronicle columnist) work at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

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