Open Records Activist Shuts Down Nonprofit Data Website in Protest

Carl Malamud, the open-records activist who is suing to get the Internal Revenue Service to release nonprofit tax forms in digital format, today shut down the free online database he maintained containing millions of nonprofit filings going back to 2002.

Mr. Malamud said he is tired of having to buy the Form 990 informational tax returns on DVDs, convert them into PDF files* that are more easily searchable, and remove Social Security numbers that the IRS failed to redact as required by law.

“Public access to this database of [tax-] exempt organization filings has been terminated due to inaction by the U.S. Congress and the Internal Revenue Service,” says a page that pops up if someone tries to open a tax filing from his database. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The website urges unhappy users to contact the IRS, the White House, or their Congressional representatives.

In a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Mr. Malamud complained that the tax agency and Congress spent millions of dollars tackling the controversy over charges that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax exemptions for extra scrutiny.

But, he added, “Not one finger has been lifted to deal with the broader issue of how we protect and distribute a crucial database, one meant to make one of our most important economic sectors function more effectively.”

Mr. Malamud wrote that he furnished information to the IRS and Congress detailing thousands of cases in which the IRS left Social Security numbers on forms that it released to the public. He said he also contacted other groups that publish Forms 990, like GuideStar and the Foundation Center, and sent notices to tax preparers, board chairmen, and other officials asking them to contact individuals whose privacy was breached.

“Despite all this activity,” he wrote, “I have not received a single communication—not even an acknowledgment of receipt” from any government agency or member of Congress.

Mr. Malamud’s group, Public.Resource.Org, argues that the IRS should operate a free online database of Forms 990 and stop converting the filings that have been submitted electronically into image files that are not searchable. A hearing is scheduled on the group’s lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The IRS and Mr. Issa’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

*Note: This language was changed from the original to clarify that Mr. Malamud converts the IRS data to PDFs.