The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday that it would make it easier for the public to access data on Forms 990 filed electronically by tax-exempt organizations.
The form, which outlines a nonprofit's activities and governance and provides detailed financial information, will be available for the first time in a machine-readable format through Amazon Web Services.
Form 990 data had previously been accessible only in image files. Now filings data from 2011 to the present will be available as an XML file that is downloadable from the web via AWS.
The publicly available data will not include donor information or other personally identifiable information, the IRS said.
"The publicly available information on the Form 990 series is vital to those interested in the tax-exempt community," IRS commissioner John Koskinen said in a statement.
"The IRS appreciates the feedback we've received from a variety of outside partners as we've worked together to explore improvements to make this data more easily accessible."
The IRS action has been a long time coming — and not without resistance from the agency.
