This morning, 105 influential conservative and nonprofit leaders delivered a letter requesting Chairman Jason Chaffetz of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee to hold hearings on the efforts of state attorneys general and the IRS to force nonprofit organizations to turn over confidential lists of donors, protected by federal law.  Specifically, they want the hearings to probe: (1) whether laws protecting the confidentiality of federal tax return information, specifically donors to nonprofit organizations, are being violated by the Attorneys General of California and New York, (2) whether the Internal Revenue Service is failing in its unique obligation to protect and police confidential federal tax return information of nonprofit organizations and their donors, and (3) whether laws need to be strengthened and penalties increased to protect confidential federal tax return information. At contributor Mark J. Fitzgibbons, who has written about donor privacy...(Read Full Post)