Trump says Harvard will lose tax exempt status • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump says Harvard will lose tax exempt status

#21

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, May 02, 2025, 3:15 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #20

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #6

I question whether Trump has the legitimate legal authority to decide the taxable status of specific institutions. If he wants to change the rules about what qualifies for tax-exempt status, that takes an act of Congress (which he can probably get, eventually). What he can do is tell the IRS to go through the existing rules and find a reason why Harvard doesn't qualify for tax-exempt status. The problems will be that…

> What he can do is tell the IRS to go through the existing rules and find a reason why Harvard doesn't qualify for tax-exempt status. No. Even this is illegal. There's specific legislation about this, which explicitly covers the president. The president is not allowed to tell anybody at the IRS to investigate any individual person or organization.

I would love for you to be right. Can you point me to the ruling/precedent/statute that covers this?

Re: Trump says Harvard will lose tax exempt status

#22

Post by boroboro4 » Fri, May 02, 2025, 3:32 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #21

UncleMeat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What he can do is tell the IRS to go through the existing rules and find a reason why Harvard doesn't qualify for tax-exempt status. No. Even this is illegal. There's specific legislation about this, which explicitly covers the president. The president is not allowed to tell anybody at the IRS to investigate any individual person or organization.

I would love for you to be right. Can you point me to the ruling/precedent/statute that covers this?

It's 26 USC § 7217: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7217. However with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States ruling it is, I guess, unprosecutable?

Re: Trump says Harvard will lose tax exempt status

#23

Post by 1659447091 » Fri, May 02, 2025, 10:44 PM UTC

jasbrg wrote: post #18

duxup wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>thus a anti-elite was voted in to carry them out . Trump? Trump is the elite, how could anyone come to a conclusion otherwise? There's no ideology at play with Trump, it's just another elite extracting what they can from anyone who doesn't do what they demand.

Wealth and class are different dimensions. Though correlated, especially in the USA which lacks a formal institutionalized gentry, just having a lot of money isn’t enough to be of the elite, high class.

When a person has the elite kissing their ring and throwing money at them for an audience, it puts that person, wealthy/poor/classless or otherwise, in with -- if not at the apex of -- the elite.