The Trump administration is preparing a major tax crackdown targeting several prominent left-leaning nonprofit organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), according to an exclusive report by the New York Post.
The effort is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to investigate what his administration considers “bogus charities” that improperly exploit the federal tax code. Treasury officials have reportedly been preparing audits of the organizations as they work toward determining whether some groups should lose their tax-exempt status.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his aides have been developing a plan that could strip organizations found to be violating tax rules of their 501(c)(3) status. Losing that designation would eliminate significant tax advantages and could expose the organizations to substantial back taxes and penalties, according to sources cited by the Post.
The effort draws on an executive order Trump signed in 2025 targeting tax-exempt organizations alleged to operate with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The order also directed the government to scrutinize nonprofits allegedly connected to violence or extremism.
One source familiar with the effort described Treasury as “a dog with a bone,” saying organizations that are not complying with tax law are “on borrowed time.”
“There’s a lot of internal pressure to get it done, but some people are still moving too slowly at the IRS,” the source told the Post. “That is expected to change very soon.”
The administration is already facing a legal challenge over the initiative. Protect Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy organization, sued the Treasury Department and IRS, alleging that the administration is improperly using federal tax laws to punish groups based on their political viewpoints.
According to the Post, there is disagreement within the administration over how quickly the enforcement effort should proceed. Some officials want to complete “a good chunk of the crackdown” before the midterm elections, while others have urged waiting until later in Trump’s term to avoid triggering protracted litigation.
The potential targeting of organizations such as the SPLC and the Soros-backed network could result in extensive legal challenges, according to the report. Officials are also concerned that battles over domestic political organizations could consume resources that the administration wants to use to pursue foreign groups, including CAIR.
The financial stakes could be significant. A Post analysis found that the SPLC, CAIR, and Open Society Foundations would collectively owe approximately $165 million in taxes if all three organizations lost their tax-exempt status. The Soros network would account for approximately $163.6 million of that total.
