The Chronicle of Philanthropy is reporting that the Internal Revenue Service‘s Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities has called for the agency to require nonprofits to file financial data electronically via Form 990.
“To buttress their case, members of the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities presented IRS officials with the results of a survey of 468 nonprofits that found that less than 2 percent of the organizations that file 990s each year by mail view mandatory electronic filing as a burden.
‘The sheer amount of data being collected by the IRS — and hopefully shared with states, foundations, researchers, and others — can provide insight and analysis that is not readily available anywhere else,’ the panel wrote in its report.”
IRS commissioner John Koskinen reportedly told the committee he would consider the recommendations, “We’re going to play the hand we’re dealt,” he said. “We’re under significant financial constraints.”
