Federal Court Orders IRS To ‎Release Digitally Readable Forms 990

A federal judge on January 30, 2015, handed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) a significant defeat in its fight against releasing IRS Form 990 information returns in a digitally readable format – a format that would make information about tax-exempt operations more easily accessible.

The ruling of Judge William H. Orrick of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California in Public.Resource.Org v. U.S. will have a significant impact on the IRS as well as all tax-exempt organizations required to file the annual Form 990.

Judge Orrick rejected the IRS's argument that producing the documents requested by Public.Resource.Org under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) would create a significant burden on an over-stretched federal agency. The judge gave the IRS 60 days to produce Forms 990 in a digitally readable format for nine tax-exempt organizations named in the lawsuit, all of which had filed their returns with the IRS electronically. The agency