IBL News | New York
President Trump doubled down on his announcement last month and said he would remove the university’s tax-exempt status on Friday, adding, “It’s what they deserve.”
The Trump administration has frozen more than $2 billion of Harvard’s federal funding, and the university has sued.
If the tax-exempt revocation is confirmed, Harvard would have to pay federal income taxes on its revenue, and donations could be lost if donors can’t claim tax deductions on their gifts.
Philanthropic contributions account for about 45 percent of Harvard’s annual operating revenues.
Harvard University, the nation’s oldest and richest university (with an endowment of $53 billion), signaled Friday that it would resist President Trump’s renewed offensive, a move for which it said there was “no legal basis.”
“Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission,” the statement said. “It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. More broadly, the unlawful use of this instrument would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
Despite Mr. Trump’s assertion online and Harvard’s sharp response, it was not immediately clear Friday whether the I.R.S. was moving forward with revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status. This change could typically occur only after a lengthy process, as the federal law prohibits the president from directing the I.R.S. to conduct tax investigations.
In recent weeks, Harvard has taken a confrontational posture toward the Trump administration, rejecting a roster of Federal government demands.
Those demands include that Harvard submit reports to Washington, alter its admissions and hiring policies, and bring in an outsider to examine “those programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”
A Harvard commentator explained how the endowment of the institution works. “Increasing the tax on Harvard’s endowment — or worse, stripping our tax-exempt status entirely — would utterly cripple this University.”
