President Donald Trump announced on Friday he’s taking away Harvard’s tax exempt status as he escalates his war on Ivy League universities.
‘We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!,’ he wrote on Truth Social.
The president, since taking office in January, has gone after America’s elite schools by freezing their federal funding and revoking student visas as part of the fallout from protests on campuses against Israel‘s war in Gaza.
Conservatives have long been suspicious of the Ivy League. Trump argues these college campuses have become home to antisemitism led by the ‘radical left.’
Harvard has been fighting the administration’s new demands. The school is suing to get back its federal grants after the White House terminated $2 billion in government funds for the Boston-based university.
President Donald Trump announced he is taking away Harvard’s tax exempt status
Trump was outraged after Harvard said it would not comply with the administration’s demands to audit certain programs and departments the administration says fuels antisemitic harassment or has an ideological capture.
Harvard University President Alan Garber slammed President Trump’s threat to remove the school’s tax-exempt status, calling it ‘highly illegal’ and ‘destructive to Harvard.’
‘The message that it sends to the educational community would be a very dire one, which suggests that political disagreements could be used as a basis to pose what might be an existential threat to so many educational institutions,’ Garber said told the Wall Street Journal.
‘If the government goes through with a plan to revoke our tax exempt status, it would…be highly illegal unless there is some reasoning that we have not been exposed to that would justify this dramatic move,’ he noted.
Garber added: ‘Tax exempt status is granted to educational institutions to enable them to successfully carry out their mission of education and, for research universities, of research. Obviously that would be severely impaired if we were to lose our tax exempt status.’
The administration’s attack on higher education is part of its efforts to root out DEI programs and affirmative action.
Specifically the Trump administration is pushing schools to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the administration called ‘more committed to activism than scholarship.’
Harvard was the first university to fight back, filing a lawsuit against Trump’s actions.
The next hearing for Harvard’s case against the government is set for July 21.
The school argues the Trump administration orders violate the First Amendment.
Harvard President Alan Gerber said Trump’s push to remove the school’s tax exempt status is ‘illegal’
Harvard University was the first school to fight back against the Trump administration’s demands on higher education
The Internal Revenue Service started making plans last month to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status, CNN reported.
Last month, Trump floated the idea of removing the university’s status.
‘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!’ he posted on Truth Social.
IRS acting commissioner Gary Shapley has the authority to rescind the tax exemption under federal law.
But that move usually comes after the agency conducts an investigation and determines an organization has violated the rules that govern tax exemptions for not-for-profit entities.
Harvard would likely sue if the administration removed its exemption.
Not-for-profit organizations that benefit from the tax exemption can lose it if they violate a number of rules, including for political activity.
