Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS could revoke the tax-exempt status of George Soros' Open Society Foundations and other left-wing nonprofit groups. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Left or right, taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize political activism they oppose, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is drafting plans to ensure they don’t by revoking tax exemptions from bogus political “charities.”
As The Post’s James Franey reports, Bessent and the IRS are taking a hard look at the conduct of up to a dozen or so high-profile lefty nonprofits — including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — with an eye toward possibly revoking their tax-exempt status.
That could mean a $165 million windfall in new tax payments from these groups — and, more important, end taxpayer subsidies for dubious or even rancid political activism.
“The woke left wants to ‘tax the rich,’ but these same lefty groups will do anything they can to avoid paying their own taxes, including breaking the law,” snarked one source familiar with Treasury’s plans. “It’s hypocrisy at its finest.”
To qualify for a 501(c)(3) tax exemption, nonprofits typically must operate “exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes”; they’re expressly prohibited from excessive lobbying or promoting “propaganda,” legislation or political candidates’ campaigns.
Treasury is reportedly looking to treat nonprofits that are political activists in disguise as businesses or political machines for tax purposes, as per the law.
That’s appropriate. Open Society, after all, famously uses its billions to fund groups that back far-left causes — including criminal-justice reforms, climate change, legal privileges for illegal immigrants, DEI and more.
Why shouldn’t it have to pay its “fair share,” rather than force other Americans — most of whom object to much of its agenda — to pick up the tab?
CAIR, too, spends much of its time and money slamming a key US ally, Israel. That’s not political?
It’s also been accused of having ties to Qatar and was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial.
Just this month, prosecutors charged the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center’s ex-finance officer, Heidi Beirich, with leading a scheme that “knowingly misled donors” and funneled cash to “senior leadership” at a white supremacist group. (Her lawyer insists she’s innocent.)
Plus, the SPLC promotes blatantly political positions, like ending “unjust imprisonment,” eliminating “economic inequality” and legislation to “expand access to the ballot box.”
It has fiercely attacked critics of causes it supports, including DEI, school-based lefty indoctrination programs, allowing boys into girls’ sports and bathrooms.
In 2023, it tarred harmless pro-child activists at Moms for Liberty as a “hate” group.
The Soros “charity” vehemently insists Treasury has no excuse for looking at it; CAIR and the SPLC declined to comment on the issue.
The probe may target other lefty groups, including MediaJustice, which lobbies for racial-equity policies in the telecom industry, defunding police tech and censoring online “disinformation,” as well as labor-backed entities like the Service Employees International Union’s Strategic Organizing Center and the anti-Amazon Athena Coalition.
Bessent and his team are on the right track: Private groups have every right to promote their political agendas — but no right at all to taxpayer support for that activism.
Especially when the taxpayers find those agendas so abhorrent.
