Contribution Statements-Social Security

[Alaraujo]

I recently attended a Christian Financial and Law conference and we were told that we would soon have to include social security numbers on our contribution statements.

Is this true? Is so, when and will we be notified in time to collect this information from our contributors before statements are due?

[NeilZ]

I recently attended a Christian Financial and Law conference and we were told that we would soon have to include social security numbers on our contribution statements.

Is this true? Is so, when and will we be notified in time to collect this information from our contributors before statements are due?

This is the first I've heard of this, unless they gave you an IRS publication or Notice of Intent, I would not worry about this. Considering the US military is not putting a Social Security Number on their ID cards any longer, I cannot imagine the IRS requiring that churches maintain the SSN for such records.

The current IRS publications concerning Church and charitable contributions does not show the need for an SSN. Pub 1771 states specifically when concerning written contribution acknowledgements:

It is not necessary to include either the donor’s social security number or tax identification number on the acknowledgment

[Alaraujo]

Thank you Neil.

[NeilZ]

This is also the reason the IRS suggests you keep such contribution records for at least four years, this way if one of your contributors does get an audit, you can provide a duplicate of any statement they may have received during that period for IRS verification.