For more than a century, most colleges and universities did not pay most of the taxes. The 1909 revenue law excused the non -profit organizations that operate “exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes” in order to continue to dispose of the public interest.

President Donald TrumpLooking to challenge this appointmentShe complains that colleges and universities “teach” their students with the ideas of the “radical left”, rather than educating them. He decided to start the 488 -year -old Harvard University, one of the most wonderful learning institutions in the world and the first college was established in the American colonies.

On Tuesday, Harvard University targetedPublished on social media for himThe site, and the question about whether it should remain exempt from taxes “if it continues to pay the political, ideological and terrorist” disease “” disease “?

The state of tax exemption, which is decided by the internal revenue service, means that these institutions do not pay certain types of taxes and that donors receive a tax opponent when offering gifts. The rules that they have to follow are determined to maintain this condition in the tax law. We talked to lawyers who specialize in non -profit law and freedom of expression to try to answer questions about this challenge.

Does the university curriculum affect its charitable condition?

In general, no. Colleges and universities have a wide period of their education design.

Jenvv Lacker, a researcher in the first amendment to the Law Faculty of the University of Chicago, said that the United States Supreme Court has developed four basic freedoms for colleges and universities – what must be taught, how to teach them, and who are their students and those who are their professors.

She said: “This is the essence of unbalanced academic freedom, and it is constitutionally protected in this country,” adding that the government cannot threaten the financing discounts or cancel the school’s tax situation as a punishment on its views or what the school learned.

Lakeer said that the first amendment also protects the rights of other non -profit organizations to pursue their charitable tasks in light of the freedom of the association, even if these tasks are hateful or that the government does not like them.

Can the president ask the Tax Authority to nullify the state of non -profit taxes?

No, it is not assumed, according to non -profit tax lawyersBooks about a previous callFrom Trump to cancel the non -profit situation for colleges and universities.

In 1998, Congress issued a law prohibiting federal officials of informing the Tax Authority of investigating any taxpayer in an attempt to increase confidence in the application of taxes.

Lawyers, Elele April and Samuel Bronson, also pointed to legislation that prevents the Tax Authority “from targeting individuals and organizations for ideological reasons”, after controversy on how to deal with the tea party groups in 2013.

How do non -profit organizations obtain a tax exemption mode?

Tax AuthorityLearn about multiple reasonsIn order for non -profit exempted from paying many types of taxes, including following up charitable, religious or educational tasks among many other examples. The statute specifically is called sports competitions, preventing cruelty to children or animals and defending human or civil rights as exempt purposes.

Non -profit organizations can lose their tax -free position to things such as paying their managers incorrectly, supporting a political candidate or operating a company that has nothing to do with its charitable mission.

In short, tax lawyers say that non -profit organizations must work “exclusively for charitable purposes”, a different criterion from what the president referred to “representation in the public interest.”

“The long history and precedents suggest that Harvard and higher education institutions are working for educational purposes, which are charitable,” said Phil Hukini, a professor of law at the University of Pittsburg, according to the Tax Law.

He said it would be very difficult to file a case that the college or university does not work for charitable purposes under the current law. However, Edward Azzetri, who is studying the tax policy at the Law College at the University of South California Gold, warned of the presence of a precedent to cancel the Tax Authority on the status of exempt from colleges that the government can rely on.

“I think that I will remove it from controlling it is unexpected and that the administration does not have the authority to follow it unilaterally, and I think this is naive.” “This can happen.”

Did the Tax Authority be a totally inventory of tax exemption before?

Yes. In 1983, the Supreme Court upheld a decision at the Near Court that the Tax Authority could deny the tax exemption to the University of Bob Jones, a private Christian university that has banned dating between races and marriage on campus, and Goldsburo Christian schools, which use racial discrimination policies.

The court found that the Tax Authority has some discretionary authority to determine whether the organization that seeks to obtain a state of tax exemption has achieved “charitable” standards, which means that “it must serve a public purpose and not contradict the applicable general policy.”

However, Antarri said, “The ability of the Tax Authority to pay attention and deny tax exemption is best that the general policy is very clear, which is deeply held, and not political preferences for certain types of positions, positions and voting patterns.”

How can the tax department nullify the state of non -profit taxes?

The Tax Authority usually opens an audit, as it collects evidence that non -profit organizations do not work exclusively for charitable purposes.

“The Tax Authority will have to send to Harvard to nullify it,” said Haqkni. “At that point, Harvard will have many different means to speak with the Tax Authority about the reason they believed they were in the law,” including the prosecution.

However, Haqkni said that the US Treasury can implement new regulations, for example, stating that the operation of the diversity, stock and integration program is not compatible with charitable purposes. Hukni said that such a change usually takes years to make it and is running for decades of precedents.

“I am skeptical that this effort will be successful,” he said. “If so, this will be the most dramatic change in charitable law in my life and I would like to say in the history of our charitable law.”

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

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2025-04-17 20:47:00