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Climate non-profits prepare for a fight with Trump on tax status

Non-profits in the United States that are focused on climate change prepare to fight against a possible action by the Trump Administration to revoke tax exemptions this week.

Climate change groups have circulated memos in the last few weeks outlining the rumored executive action they expect from Donald Trump. This includes a change to IRS regulations to remove climate changes from the list of charitable topics that qualify and blocking the use U.S. grant funding to fund overseas projects.

Concerns were raised after Trump made comments criticizing the charitable status granted to Harvard University. This was seen as an initial shot at other so-called "501(c3)" organizations, which are named after the section of the tax code exempting charities from income taxes.

According to three non-profit leaders who participated, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Public Citizen hosted a Zoom call Friday to discuss ways charities can prepare themselves for a potential executive action. After the maximum of 5,000 people had signed up, the call was oversubscribed.

Sandler Reiff, a political law firm, sent a memo on Friday to its clients in the non-profit sector and philanthropy to tell them to not panic if they are threatened with losing their tax exemption status or having international work frozen by the government.

The memo said that the President cannot unilaterally revoke the tax-exempt status of any organization. It also stated that any executive orders that attempt to do this "doesn't have legal validity".

Trump has been adamant about his antisemitism-free policy since his January inauguration. He has also moved swiftly to sidestep or undo environmental regulations, eliminate climate science research, and stop federal support for renewable energy.

In a post on social media last week, Trump said he was weighing whether he should seek to end Harvard’s tax-exempt designation.

The Trump administration has been threatening to halt climate change work by environmental groups and grant-making charities.

The foundations that donate to charities have said they will fight any attempts to limit the amount of money they give. The MacArthur Foundation has committed to spending an additional $150 millions in charitable donations over the next two year.

John Palfrey, the Foundation's president, told delegates in Britain that "we have more strength and protection than we realize" at a recent meeting of philanthropic organizations. Drop any restrictions that we believe we can. "Give gifts wherever you can."

Lawrence Lessig is a Harvard Law School professor who said that any order to change the tax status of non-profits would be legally questionable.

He said that there was no way a court could conclude that Trump had the authority to change the tax status for any organization without an investigation that began before Trump targeted that organization and determined that the organization violated the laws. (Reporting and editing by Peter Graff, Virginia Furness and Valerie Volcovici)

(source: Reuters)