Democrats have called for an investigation into whether the US president is pressuring the IRS to strip Harvard’s status.
United States President Donald Trump has renewed his threat to strip Harvard University of its tax exempt status, a move that could cost the Ivy League institution billions of dollars if implemented.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on Friday, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
The statement is the latest threat in a continuing feud between the Republican president and Harvard, the country’s oldest higher-education institution.
Since taking office for a second term on January 20, Trump has sought to increase his control over US universities and crack down on what he considers “illegal protests” on campus.
But Harvard has been a focal point for his public ire, particularly after school leaders refused a list of demands the Trump administration sent on April 11.
In a five-page letter (PDF), Trump officials called on Harvard to reform its student disciplinary system, investigate protesters involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, commission an external audit of programmes deemed anti-Semitic and eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
The letter also required Harvard to commit to “viewpoint diversity” in its hiring and admissions practices, something it was expected to accomplish through “structural and personnel changes”. Critics said this mandate was tantamount to Trump attempting to impose a political litmus test on the school.
By April 14, Harvard’s President Alan Garber had rejected the letter. In a statement published to Harvard’s website, he explained that Trump’s demands infringed upon Harvard’s academic freedom, among other rights.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber wrote. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
The Trump administration swiftly responded by suspending nearly $2.2bn in grants and contracts to the school.
It has since filed a lawsuit (PDF) challenging Trump’s attempts to withhold federal funding from the school, calling the move “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard”.
Shortly after halting the grants and contracts, Trump turned his attention to Harvard’s tax exempt status, ratcheting up the pressure on the school.
Educational institutions, charities, nonprofits and institutions of scientific research are among the entities eligible to apply for tax exempt status under US law. That status offers those organisations relief from paying federal income and property taxes.
But on April 15, Trump mused on social media that Harvard should lose that exemption, on account of its handling of pro-Palestinian student protests.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax-Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’” Trump wrote.
US media reports later indicated that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was having internal deliberations about whether to revoke the school’s IRS status, despite such action being relatively rare.
But under the US Code, it is illegal for the president, vice president or any of their employees to petition the IRS — even indirectly — to conduct an audit of any taxpayer.
Democrats have seized on that fact to push for an investigation into the Trump administration’s actions towards Harvard.
“The President is targeting the non-profit status of Harvard University for blatantly political purposes,” Democratic senators including Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren wrote in a joint letter on Friday.
“The president’s call for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status raises troubling constitutional questions, including whether the president is trying to squelch Harvard’s free speech rights and whether the revocation of its tax-exempt status will deprive the university of its due process rights.”
