The Latest Breaking News from IRS

MIAMI — In the run-up to the 2018 election, Broken Promises — a mysterious nonprofit group registered to a UPS box in the nation’s capital — gave $25,000 to a political committee called Consumers for Energy Fairness. It was the first donation the committee received that year.

The Internal Revenue Service posted to its website confidential information for 120,000 taxpayers with retirement accounts invested in assets like master limited partnerships and real-estate investment trusts. Those taxpayers, as well as tax-exempt nonprofits, must file 990-T forms. Only the information for the nonprofits was supposed to be posted. IRS…

The data — which included individual names and business contact information — was public on the IRS.gov website for about a year until an employee noticed the mistake recently.

My dad was an armed IRS agent, gun-toting for good reason. He helped bust mob figures across northern Ohio for tax evasion, from Toledo to Youngstown. He died too young (of natural causes), and his public service is among my best memories.