Uncovering Foreign Influence in the United States Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 703 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make public the names and addresses of foreign persons contributing $50,000 or more to certain tax-exempt organizations and to require disclosure of foreign campaign contributions. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 22, 2019 Mr. CONAWAY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make public the names and addresses of foreign persons con- tributing $50,000 or more to certain tax-exempt organi- zations and to require disclosure of foreign campaign contributions. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Uncovering Foreign 4 Influence in the United States Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 703 IH SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF 501(c)(3) ANNUAL RETURN 1 INFORMATION RELATING TO FOREIGN PER- 2 SON CONTRIBUTIONS. 3 (a) SECRETARY.—Section 6104(b) of the Internal 4 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 5 (1) by striking ‘‘509(a) or’’ and inserting 6 ‘‘509(a),’’; 7 (2) by inserting ‘‘, or as provided in the last 8 sentence of this subsection’’ after ‘‘under section 9 527’’; and 10 (3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘Orga- 11 nizations described in section 501(c)(3) shall make 12 available to the public in the same manner as infor- 13 mation under the first sentence of this subsection 14 the name and address of each foreign person (as de- 15 fined in subsection (d)(3)(C)) who contributed 16 $50,000 or more to the organization for the taxable 17 year.’’. 18 (b) ORGANIZATION.—Section 6104(d)(3) of such 19 Code is amended by adding at the end the following new 20 subparagraph: 21 ‘‘(C) DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN CONTRIBU- 22 TIONS FROM FOREIGN PERSONS.— 23 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) 24 shall not apply in the case of the name and 25 address of a foreign person required under 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 703 IH the last sentence of subsection (b) to be 1 made available to the public. 2 ‘‘(ii) FOREIGN PERSON.—For pur- 3 poses of this subsection, the term ‘foreign 4 person’ means— 5 ‘‘(I) any person who is not a 6 United States person (as defined in 7 section 7701(a)(30), 8 ‘‘(II) any foreign government or 9 foreign governmental entity (or any 10 entity owned by, controlled by, or con- 11 sisting of one or more thereof), or 12 ‘‘(III) any corporation which is 13 foreign owned (within the meaning of 14 section 269B(e)(2)). 15 Such term shall include such partnerships, 16 trusts, associations, estates, or other forms 17 of carrying on a business or activity as the 18 Secretary shall by regulation prescribe 19 based on rules similar to the rules of sub- 20 paragraph (A)(iii). 21 ‘‘(iii) COORDINATION WITH REPORT- 22 ING RELATING TO CONTRIBUTIONS MADE 23 THROUGH INTERMEDIARIES.—For pur- 24 poses of this subparagraph and the last 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 703 IH sentence of subsection (b), any foreign per- 1 son with respect to whom a written state- 2 ment is furnished to the organization 3 under section 6050X(c) shall be treated as 4 having made to the organization the con- 5 tribution to which such statement re- 6 lates.’’. 7 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 8 this section shall apply to returns for taxable years begin- 9 ning after December 31, 2018. 10 SEC. 3. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGN CON- 11 TRIBUTIONS TO 501(c)(3) ORGANIZATIONS 12 THROUGH INTERMEDIARIES. 13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart B of part III of sub- 14 chapter A of chapter 61 of the Internal Revenue Code of 15 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 16 section: 17 ‘‘SEC. 6050X. RETURNS RELATING TO FOREIGN CONTRIBU- 18 TIONS TO 501(c)(3) ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH 19 INTERMEDIARIES. 20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A return shall be made by any 21 person who as an intermediary makes a contribution on 22 behalf of a foreign person to an applicable exempt organi- 23 zation with the reasonable expectation that in connection 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 703 IH with such contribution such organization will perform pol- 1 icy analysis for the benefit of such foreign person. 2 ‘‘(b) FORM AND MANNER OF RETURN.—Such return 3 shall— 4 ‘‘(1) be made at such time and in such form 5 and manner as the Secretary shall prescribe, and 6 ‘‘(2) contain the name and address of the for- 7 eign person and the amount of the contribution to 8 which such return relates. 9 ‘‘(c) STATEMENT SHALL BE FURNISHED TO ORGA- 10 NIZATION.—Every person required to make a return 11 under subsection (a) with respect to a contribution shall 12 furnish to the organization to which such contribution was 13 made a written statement showing— 14 ‘‘(1) the information required to be shown on 15 the return under subsection (a), and 16 ‘‘(2) the name and address of the person re- 17 quired to make such return. 18 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 19 ‘‘(1) FOREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘foreign per- 20 son’ has the meaning given such term by section 21 6104(d)(3)(C)(ii). 22 ‘‘(2) APPLICABLE EXEMPT ORGANIZATION.— 23 The term ‘applicable exempt organization’ means an 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 703 IH organization described in section 501(c)(3) and ex- 1 empt from tax under section 501(a).’’. 2 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3 for subpart B of part III of subchapter A of chapter 61 4 of such Code is amended by adding at the end the fol- 5 lowing new item: 6 ‘‘Sec. 6050X. Returns relating to foreign contributions to 501(c)(3) organiza- tions through intermediaries.’’. (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 7 this section shall apply to contributions made after De- 8 cember 31, 2018. 9 SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF TAX ON UNDISCLOSED FOREIGN 10 CONTRIBUTIONS. 11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of the Internal Rev- 12 enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 13 following new chapter: 14 ‘‘CHAPTER 50A—FOREIGN 15 CONTRIBUTIONS 16 ‘‘Sec. 5000D. Imposition of tax on undisclosed foreign contributions. ‘‘SEC. 5000D. IMPOSITION OF TAX ON UNDISCLOSED FOR- 17 EIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. 18 ‘‘(a) IMPOSITION OF TAX.—In the case of a United 19 States person who makes an applicable foreign-source po- 20 litical contribution and fails to disclose such contribution 21 during the 30-day period beginning on the date such con- 22 tribution was made, there is hereby imposed on any such 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 703 IH failure a tax equal to the applicable percentage of the 1 amount of such contribution. 2 ‘‘(b) APPLICABLE PERCENTAGE.—For purposes of 3 this section, the applicable percentage shall be 10 percent, 4 increased by 10 percentage points (but not to more than 5 100 percent) for each subsequent 30-day period (or frac- 6 tion thereof) thereafter during which such failure con- 7 tinues. 8 ‘‘(c) APPLICABLE FOREIGN-SOURCE POLITICAL CON- 9 TRIBUTION.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘appli- 10 cable foreign-source political contribution’ means any con- 11 tribution directly or indirectly for the benefit of a can- 12 didate for Federal, State, or local elected office in the 13 United States which is made on behalf of, or is funded 14 by, a person other than a United States person or bona 15 fide resident (as defined in section 937(a)) of a possession 16 of the United States. 17 ‘‘(d) FORM AND MANNER OF DISCLOSURE.—The dis- 18 closure required under subsection (a) shall be made to the 19 Secretary, and shall be made publicly available, in such 20 form and manner as the Secretary shall prescribe. Such 21 disclosure shall include the amount of the contribution and 22 shall identify on whose behalf such contribution was 23 made.’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 703 IH (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of chapters 1 for subtitle D of such Code is amended by adding at the 2 end the following new item: 3 ‘‘CHAPTER 50A. FOREIGN CONTRIBUTIONS’’. (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 4 this section shall apply to contributions made after De- 5 cember 31, 2018. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H703.IH H703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS