What benefits does Harvard have under tax-exempt status? Here's what we know as Trump escalates campus crackdown

President Donald Trump escalated his administration’s fight with Harvard University by threatening its tax-exempt status after the school defied the government’s demands to change its policies in exchange for billions of dollars of federal funding.

“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?” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Know about Harvard’s tax-exempt status benfits

Harvard’s tax-exempt status affords the school a variety of benefits, such as not having to pay traditional property taxes on educational buildings. It can sell bonds that pay interest that’s exempt from federal taxes, which lures investors and helps lower borrowing costs. Donors can also gain tax benefits for gifts to charitable institutions. A Bloomberg News analysis estimated that Harvard’s tax benefits totaled at least $465 million in 2023.

The Internal Revenue Service, which is supposed to enforce federal tax laws independent of partisan pressure, determines whether a non-profit loses the status. Organizations can lose their status if they’re involved in political campaign activity or are heavily involved in lobbying. Groups can also lose their designation if they have excessive income unrelated to their core mission or fail to file annual returns with the IRS.

The government’s antisemitism task force said late Monday that it would freeze at least $2.2 billion of multiyear grants after Harvard’s rejected a set of demands from the administration. It has also frozen money for Columbia, Princeton, Northwestern and Cornell, and said it was reviewing about $9 billion of grants and funding to Harvard.

Harvard, the oldest and richest US college with a $53 billion endowment, has long been a target of Republicans who have accused it of liberal bias and been critical of its hiring and admissions policies. But it has become a flashpoint for the White House after campuses were roiled by pro-Palestinian student protests after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza.

Harvard had previously said it would work with the administration to address antisemitism on campus, such as tightening disciplinary procedures. But president Alan Garber on Monday struck a defiant tone, arguing that the government was threatening to cross red lines regarding academic freedom and interference in higher education.

Garber said the administration expanded its terms to include the ending of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, changes to its admissions and hiring and curbs on the “power” of certain students, faculty and administrators because of their ideological views.

“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber wrote on Harvard’s website. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

The school didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.