IRS Unintentionally Releases Form 990-T Data

The Internal Revenue Service announced that it has unintentionally made certain data collected from Form 990-T available for bulk download through its Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.

In a September 2, 2022, statement posted to its web site, the agency said it took steps to address the situation, including removing the data with the intent of replacing the data files with the correct versions that are supposed to be publicly available.

The IRS “will be working with groups that routinely use the files to remove the erroneous files and replace them with the correct versions as they become available,” the agency said in the posted statement, adding that it will “contact all impacted filers in the coming weeks.”

Form 990-T is the business tax return used by tax-exempt entities to report and pay income tax that is generated from certain investments as well as income generated from activities not related to their exempt purpose. The agency is generally required to disclose the information for these 501(c)(3) organizations, but the data made available included information on a subset of non-501(c)(3) organizations which are not subject to a public disclosure requirement.

The IRS said the data included in the release does not include Social Security numbers, detailed account-holder information or individual tax returns, although in some cases there was a release of individual names and business contact information.