IRS leaks SSNs of political group tax filers

The tax agency mistakenly exposed online and on DVDs thousands of Social Security numbers from tax returns submitted by political groups known as 527s.

Sanitized records from these returns are housed in a public website frequented by political reporters and public interest groups. But one public interest group pointed out to the IRS ten instances where an SSN was accidentally revealed on the government's website—just a small sample of the larger breach. 

IRS removed the files from public view on July 3, after being notified of the breach on July 2 by the group, Public.Resource.org.

The IRS said in a statement: "When we were alerted last week that a substantial number of Social Security numbers were posted on IRS.gov in forms filed by section 527 political organizations, the IRS decided out of an abundance of caution to temporarily remove public web access to the records.  . .The law requires the IRS to publicly post forms, such as Forms 8871, 8872 and 990, that are submitted by section 527 organizations. The IRS frequently and routinely reminds organizations of the public disclosure of these forms and urges them not to include personal information, including Social Security numbers, in their public filings."