Among the more than 160,000 comments the IRS received recently on its proposed rule dealing with candidate-related political activity by 501(c)(4) organizations, the Center for Responsive Politics was the only organization to point to deficiencies in a critical data set the IRS makes available to the public.

This month, the IRS released the newest version of that data, known as 990 extracts, which have been improved considerably. Now, the data is searchable and browseable on OpenSecrets.org

“Abysmal” IRS data

Back in February, CRP had some tough words for the IRS concerning the information. In the closing pages of our comment on the agency’s proposed guidelines for candidate-related political activity, we wrote that “the data the IRS provides to the public — and the manner in which it provides it — is abysmal.”

One data set we singled out was the 990 extract data , which provides summary information for all IRS-recognized 501(c) organizations that filed an annual 990 tax return during the preceding year. The IRS put the extracts out for the first time in the spring of 2013. That release included data from all 990s filed in 2012, most of which covered 2011 (there’s a long lag time between the end of a group’s fiscal year and its 990 filing deadline).

But the 990 extracts recently released by the IRS contain much better data. The number of fields in the table has jumped from 62 to 245, which means there is a lot more useful data to chew on.

The new extracts contain all the top level numbers reported to the IRS, as well as the group’s answers about its activities — like whether it was involved, directly or indirectly, in political campaigns, had disregarded entities, or even if it made money from tanning services

New extract search

Because there are nearly 290,000 filings to manage, we’ve decided to take a different approach from other searches of this data. We’ve created a search that not only allows users to look for specific groups, but we’ve also created filter options that allow viewers to browse groups that display certain structural and financial characteristics.

Most of the fields are straightforward, but a few need a brief explanation.

Political spending : Includes any organizations that answered “Yes” when asked if the organization engaged “in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office”

: Includes any organizations that answered “Yes” when asked if the organization engaged “in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office” Grants more than $100,000: Uses fields in the extracts to call up all organizations that reported grants to other organizations of more than $100,000

Uses fields in the extracts to call up all organizations that reported grants to other organizations of more than $100,000 Grants of more than 70 percent total expenditures : Finds organizations whose grantmaking activities comprised a large majority of their overall spending.

: Finds organizations whose grantmaking activities comprised a large majority of their overall spending. Disregarded entities : Shows organizations that have wholly-owned subsidiaries known as disregarded entities. As OpenSecrets Blog has reported for quite some time, some politically active nonprofits use disregarded entities to make it more difficult to track money flowing through networks.

: Shows organizations that have wholly-owned subsidiaries known as disregarded entities. As has reported for quite some time, some politically active nonprofits use disregarded entities to make it more difficult to track money flowing through networks. Financial relationship with members : Nonprofits have to report if the organization was “party to a business transaction” current or former directors, trustees, or key employees — or their family members. If the group reports having such a relationship with these people, it has to be reported in a Schedule L.

: Nonprofits have to report if the organization was “party to a business transaction” current or former directors, trustees, or key employees — or their family members. If the group reports having such a relationship with these people, it has to be reported in a Schedule L. Five or fewer employees, with more than $500,000 in total spending: Some organizations have a considerable level of spending and activities being carried out by just a handful of employees. We’ve provided info on these.

In addition to these preset filters, all the results can be filtered by type of organization, either showing all nonprofits or just one subset — like 501(c)(4) social welfare groups, for example.

Plenty of improving left to do





It’s promising to see the IRS expanding the data it makes public, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. As we mentioned in our comments to the agency, the extracts fall short in that they do not include groups that did not seek, or have not yet received, an official exemption from the IRS. Certain major groups fall into this category, like Crossroads GPS American Commitment and VoteVets.org . While these groups aren’t recognized by the IRS as exempt, they are still required to file annual 990s, and presumably the IRS collects data from them. (“Presumably” because the IRS won’t be straightforward about where it collects data.)

Also, the extracts don’t include top level — much less itemized — numbers from other parts of the 990s. For example, the data includes the answer to whether the group spent money on politics, but in cases where the answer is “yes,” there is no top level number for how much the group says it spent. Just as importantly, the top level totals for how much the group gave out in grants is a vast improvement over last year, but it is not nearly as helpful as having itemized data for each individual grant. As we noted in our comment, the reason this information isn’t included is probably because the IRS doesn’t track grants between nonprofits, which is another problem.



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