The Internal Revenue Service is considering revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status and a decision could be made in the coming days, sources told ABC News on Thursday.
The White House has already put a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value after the school refused to comply with a series of demands from President Donald Trump‘s administration.
The Department of Homeland Security is also threatening to revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status, which allows for noncitizen students to study there under a specific visa, unless it turns over student visa holders’ records, specifically those pertaining to “illegal and violent activities,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Harvard in a letter sent by the department.
Attempts to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status would likely face legal challenges. In a statement, Harvard said revoking its tax-exempt status would be unlawful and endanger “our ability to carry out our educational mission.”
Students, faculty and members of the Harvard University community rally, April 17, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass.
AP
“Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out oureducational mission,” a university spokesperson said. “It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
The White House said in a statement to ABC News that any investigation by the IRS into Harvard began before President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform that the school should lose its tax-exempt status.
“Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the President, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the President’s TRUTH,” principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said.
Federal law bars the president from directly or indirectly ordering the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit or investigation. The law also bars the vice president or any employee of the president or vice president from direct orindirect involvement.
Asked Thursday why his administration was going after Harvard’s tax-exempt status, Trump said, “Because Harvard is a disgrace, it’s antisemitic. Tax exempt status is a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard.
On Tuesday, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform: “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 said.
Trump said Thursday that he was not involved in the effort, telling a reporter, “I read about it just like you did.”
The Trump administration had demanded that Harvard end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs; adopt merit-based admissions; and cooperate with immigration authorities.
In a letter on April 11, the Trump administration argued that the school “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment” and proposed terms including changing the school’s governance, adopting merit-based hiring, shuttering any DEI programs and allowing “audits” to ensure “viewpoint diversity.”
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
