CNN

IRS making plans to rescind Harvard's tax-exempt status

Evan Perez and Alayna Treene, CNN
Wed, April 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM EDT3 min read

The Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, according to two sources familiar with the matter, which would be an extraordinary step of retaliation as the Trump administration seeks to turn up pressure on the university that has defied its demands to change its hiring and other practices.

A final decision on rescinding the university's tax exemption is expected soon, the sources said.

The administration already has blocked more than $2 billion in funding from the nation's oldest university, which is fighting the White House's policy demands, citing the constitutional right of private universities to determine their own teaching practices.

President Donald Trump in recent days raised the idea of punishing the Ivy League university for not complying with what the administration has sought to portray as a campaign to fight antisemitism.

"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?' Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday.

An attorney for Harvard didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN has reached out to the Treasury Department, of which the IRS is a bureau, for comment.

Gary Shapley, whom Trump this week picked as acting IRS commissioner, has the authority to rescind the tax exemption under federal law. Doing so typically comes after the agency has made a determination that an organization has violated the rules that govern tax exemptions for not-for-profit entities.

Not-for-profit organizations that benefit from the tax exemption can lose it if they violate a number of rules, including for political activity.

But a rescission would be a rare move by the IRS.

In the 1980s, the agency revoked the tax exemption of a Christian college that the IRS determined had used a racially discriminatory admissions policy.

R. William Snyder, accounting and taxes professor at George Mason University's Costello College of Business, told CNN, "To my knowledge, this is the first time an administration has tried something like this."

Snyder added: "The whole purpose of higher education is to educate the masses. Just because they educate in a way that you don't like, is that grounds to terminate their tax-exempt status? I'd say no."

It's unclear whether the IRS is considering such a move for other universities.

The Trump administration has threatened numerous colleges across the US with funding cuts if changes in school policy weren't made, and Harvard's resistance appears to mark the first time an elite university has rebuked the White House over those demands.

Trump on Truth Social on Wednesday escalated his attacks on the school, calling it a "joke" and saying it should no longer receive federal funds.

Marshall Cohen, Rene Marsh and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Gary Shapley's name.

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Dora Hates You

Harvard has an endowment of 56 Billion dollars. Their alumni populate the highest echelon of the legal field. Trump picked a fight with an adversary that had time, money and one law on its side.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

I hope they don't back down. This shit is out of hand.

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It was fun while it lasted.

"I have nothing to do with Project 2025"

There is also the problem of the research that these Ivy League universities conduct. There are no alternatives up and available for the that kind of scope and depth. They cannot just shop their billions elsewhere. FAU will not be doing Harvard research next week just because Trump wants to deprive Harvard of the money and punish them. But it is clear after Columbia's capitulation that the ivy's need to stand together.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Big Government in full action.

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I was right.

I was wondering if anyone, anywhere, was going to push back.

Harvard has deep enough pockets to withstand this ideological takeover. Lets see if they've got the scrote to maintain.

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Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Denis Diderot

i hope that every single university fights back.
This is authoritarian bullshit and is bad for us.
Harvard grants also support a lot of medical facilities that benefit children, people with cancer, etc.

Nobody forces people to go to any specific university.
If they hack on harvard for having a bias, they also need to hack on the christian universities and colleges.

I have never heard anyone regret going to a good college like Harvard or stanford or ??
But I have heard people lament wasting their time at a christian college that wasn't accredited and now all they can do is work at ChikFillet.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

It was interesting that the primary tipping point for Harvard deciding to fight was that Columbia was hit up a 2nd time for more far-right concessions after their initial capitulation.

We've already significantly cut funding for other hugely important research programs, resulting in many top research scientists leaving the US. I guess giving up one more aspect that actually makes America great is not as important as consolidating wealth and power, punishing the poor, the muslims, the immigrants, the press, the libs, the deep state, and the gays, right MAGAts?