Free Republic

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mistakenly released the private data of roughly 112,000 taxpayers in September and again in late November, the agency disclosed Thursday. An IRS programming error in September caused the release of 112,000 individual 990-T forms, a form used by IRA holders to report retirement account assets. The IRS is required to publicize 990-T forms filled out by nonprofit organizations but not those completed by individual taxpayers, ... The 990-T data was accidentally released again in November when a contractor uploaded an outdated file holding the private information, the IRS said in a Thursday letter to Congress....

The Internal Revenue Service 'mistakenly' posted the names, contact data and financial information from about 120,000 taxpayers' retirement accounts. The US Treasury Department determined that a human coding error allowed the confidential information to be posted on the IRS' website before it was taken down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Among the information published were the names, contact information and finances of individuals who submitted 990-T forms regarding their IRA plans. On Friday, the Treasury assured Congress that Social Security numbers, full income information and other key pieces of financial data were not published and that those affected would be...