Should 2013 filings be supported?

[mjalkio]

The 990-xml-reader README suggests that everything from 2013 onward should be available in the standardized format:

Allowed output formats are 'csv', 'txt', and 'json'. [See the results as .csv, .txt., or .json files]. CSV and TXT are "flat" formats for human readibility, whereas the json is nested like the original tax forms (although only available for schema years 2013 and forwards).

However, when trying to load_filings 2013 I get an error RuntimeError: Illegal year 2013. Please enter a year between 2014 and 2018.

Is this intentional?

[jsfenfen]

Yes, I think this i intentional. There's really several different ways of referring to the year, and to keep track of. The xsd versions refer to the tax year that they are first developed for (this may be slightly imprecise). But in practice everyone files taxes during a later year. In other words, folks don't file their 2013 taxes until it is 2014 (or often, later). The .xml filings are organized by the year received, so you won't see a 2013 schema until 2014 (there's probably some crazy exception to this rule, but as likely as not an error).

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On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 5:02 PM Michael Jalkio ***@***.***> wrote: The 990-xml-reader README suggests that everything from 2013 onward should be available in the standardized format: Allowed output formats are 'csv', 'txt', and 'json'. [See the results as .csv, .txt., or .json files]. CSV and TXT are "flat" formats for human readibility, whereas the json is nested like the original tax forms (although only available for schema years 2013 and forwards). However, when trying to load_filings 2013 I get an error RuntimeError: Illegal year 2013. Please enter a year between 2014 and 2018. Is this intentional? — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#19>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAnAJLXj8H_hJRNdB8-wTI5aI2ygqiqEks5u_qgYgaJpZM4ZpAkf> .

[bcipolli]

Would be nice to avoid referring to year in this case. Docs and messages could refer to tax year and filing year?

[bcipolli]

This is also strange because we're able to load yearly submissions for 2013. Should we block that?

[jsfenfen]

Hey @bcipolli it's probably a good idea to separate out tax year, schema year and filing year (there are really three different ones), this might be better addressed in the docs first? Do you have an example that's loading that you think shouldn't? The key year is schema year that's the one that should determine whether a filing is parseable. Do you have an example?