Key Court Victory Closer for IRS Open-Records Activist by Suzanne Perry.
From the post:
The open-records activist Carl Malamud has moved a step closer to winning his legal battle to give the public greater access to the wealth of information on Form 990 tax returns that nonprofits file.
During a hearing in San Francisco on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said he tentatively planned to rule in favor of Mr. Malamud’s group, Public. Resource. Org, which filed a lawsuit to force the Internal Revenue Service to release nonprofit tax forms in a format that computers can read. That would make it easier to conduct online searches for data about organizations’ finances, governance, and programs.
“It looks like a win for Public. Resource and for the people who care about electronic access to public documents,” said Thomas Burke, the group’s lawyer.
The suit asks the IRS to release Forms 990 in machine-readable format for nine nonprofits that had submitted their forms electronically. Under current practice, the IRS converts all Forms 990 to unsearchable image files, even those that have been filed electronically.
That’s a step in the right direction but not all that will be required.
Suzanne goes on to note that the IRS removes donor lists from the 990 forms.
Any number of organizations will object but I think the donor lists should be public information as well.
Making all donors public may discourage some people from donating to unpopular causes but that’s a hit I would be willing to take to know who owns the political non-profits. And/or who funds the NRA for example.
Data that isn’t open enough to know who is calling the shots at organizations isn’t open data, its an open data tease.