IRS Making Plans To Revoke Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status, CNN Reports

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status after the University rejected federal demands on Monday, CNN reported Wednesday afternoon.

The plans have yet to be finalized, according to CNN, but they come just one day after United States President Donald Trump threatened to pull Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

CNN cited two unnamed sources in its reporting. Spokespeople for the IRS, the Treasury Department, and Harvard all did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

If Harvard lost its tax-exempt status, it would be required to pay federal income taxes, including on its endowment income and contributions from donors.

The IRS’s preparations indicate that Republicans are serious about acting on their longstanding threat to Harvard’s non-profit status. Two days ago, the Trump administration followed through on months of warnings to cut the University’s federal funding.

Harvard’s status as a nonprofit institution makes it exempt from federal income taxes, but that privilege could be revoked if it operates outside its stated purposes. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Republicans have repeatedly argued that the University has strayed from its mission.

The criticisms have taken an explicitly ideological tone, with Republicans accusing Harvard of providing a home for academic programs that tilt to the left. In a Wednesday post on Truth Social, Trump accused Harvard of “hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called future leaders.”

In a letter to Garber in January 2024, leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee Workforce warned that they were willing to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status over its response to pro-Palestine protests on campus.

But federal law bars the president from “directly or indirectly” asking the IRS to conduct tax investigations.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.