WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service said on Thursday that it has both added an interactive feature to its Form 8038-CP to help taxpayers avoid mistakes and updated how it processes the forms' requests for refundable credit payments.
The IRS also said it has now made electronically available in a new format the data from certain Form 990s that contain financial information and are annually filed by tax-exempt organizations. The revised procedures and processes for Form 8038-CP on credit payments to issuers of direct-pay and tax credit bonds apply to all forms received after May 16, the agency said.
The IRS' tax-exempt bond office is now requiring issuers to complete all required lines in the Form 8038-CP. Should any required information or documents be omitted, the IRS will send a correspondence letter giving issuers 30 days to submit the required information. Should the original return include any missing or incorrect information, payment of the requested refundable credit could be delayed, the IRS said.
If taxpayers fail to respond to IRS correspondence within 30 days of the agency's request for information, the agency will not process the 8038-CP and will not return the form or any other related documents submitted.
Form 8038-CP, last revised in January 2012, is used by issuers of Build America Bonds, recovery zone economic development bonds and specified tax credit bonds for a direct payment equal to a percentage of the bonds' interest payments.
The IRS has introduced an interactive feature to the form that will alert taxpayers to missing fields and other errors so that they complete form without the delays caused by incompletion. The IRS also said that the publicly available data on electronically filed Form 990s will be available through Amazon Web Services, an online cloud computing platform.
Previously, Form 990 data was only available in image files.
The agency uses Form 990 to gather information about tax-exempt organizations and promote compliance. Data available through the cloud platform will include Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF. IRS officials said donor information and other personal information will be redacted.
Organizations use these forms to provide the public with information about their programs. Also most states use the Form 990 to perform charitable and regulatory oversight to satisfy income tax filing requirements for entities claiming tax exemption.
Unless an exception applies, tax-exempt organizations are required to file the annual information notice with the IRS.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the update came after fielding suggestions on how to make the data more easily accessible.
"The publicly available information on the Form 990 series is vital to those interested in the tax-exempt community," Koskinen said.
