The ??? ?? ????IRS admitted this week that it made a large unforced error, accidentally releasing confidential taxpayer data. The info for up to 120,000 individuals was exposed, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
Data from some Form 990-Ts were accidentally posted by the IRS. Only 501(c)(3) organizations are required to post that data publicly, but the IRS accidentally published some of the Form 990-Ts for non-501(c)(3) organizations.
"The IRS is required to publicly disclose this information for 501(c)(3) organizations; however, similar information was inadvertently published for a subset of non-501(c)(3)s, which are not subject to public disclosure," the IRS said in a statement. "However, the data does not include Social Security numbers, detailed account-holder information or individual income tax returns (Forms 1040). In some instances, the data does include individual names or business contact information."
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The report from the Journalnoted that the information was able to be downloaded for a period of time before the IRS fixed the mistake. The IRS said in its statement that it was "continuing to review this situation."
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If you're worried your info might've been exposed, you'll soon find out if that was the case. The IRS said it would be contacting the people affected in the coming weeks.