Lawsuit to Compel IRS to Release 990s in Readable Format

 As reported by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Public.Resource.Org (“PRO”) filed a lawsuit seeks to compel the IRS to release Forms 990 in a format that can be read and, thus, searchable by computers.  The IRS practice to date is to convert all filed 990s into images, which renders the content therein incapable of being searched.  Organizations that provide access to exempt organizations’ 990s, like GuideStar and Charity Navigator, must manually enter the data in order to make it accessible to the public.  PRO seeks to end the IRS practice that makes such forms effectively useless to organizations wishing to search the filed returns for specific data or information.  The IRS argues that current open-records laws do not require it to utilize any particular format in making the information public.

According to The Chronicle, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, Judge William Orrick (U.S. District Court for Northern District of CA) “tentatively” denied the IRS’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, thus allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

Nicholas Mirkay