The Trump administration is ready to use the federal tax code as a tool for accountability, and some of the country’s most politically active charitable organizations could be in its sights. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS are reportedly weighing whether certain left-wing nonprofits are using tax-exempt status for purposes far beyond what the law intends, and the financial stakes for those organizations are potentially enormous.

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From the New York Post:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS could revoke the tax-free status of left-wing nonprofits such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, three sources familiar with the matter have told The Post.

It is part of a Trump-backed crackdown on “bogus” charities, and Treasury officials are drawing up a sweeping audit of outfits deemed to be using and abusing Uncle Sam’s tax code, the three people briefed on the Treasury Department’s internal policy deliberations said.

Bessent’s inner circle is drafting a blueprint that could ultimately strip non-compliant organizations of their 501(c)(3) status, according to two of the people familiar with the plans. The reviews could result in massive back payments and civil penalties, the same sources said.

The initiative rests in part on a 2025 executive order by President Donald Trump targeting nonprofits operating with a “substantial illegal purpose,” clearing the way for the IRS to impose fines or revoke tax-exempt status from charities allegedly tied to political violence, protests, or radical ideologies. Other anti-corporate and labor-aligned groups have also been scrutinized, including the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, the anti-Amazon Athena Coalition, the watchdog MediaJustice, and the Strategic Organizing Center along with its parent union, the SEIU.

Each of the main targets carries its own controversy. The Open Society Foundations, now chaired by George Soros’ 40-year-old son Alexander, directs billions to groups backing diversity initiatives, climate-change lawsuits, and open-border causes, with beneficiaries that have included Black Lives Matter, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and United We Dream Action. The Southern Poverty Law Center is grappling with the federal indictment of its former intelligence director. CAIR, meanwhile, is being treated as a national security matter; federal prosecutors named the group an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial, which CAIR strongly denies.

The dollar figures are significant. A Post analysis of recent IRS filings found the three organizations would have owed about $165 million in federal income tax for 2024 at the standard 21% corporate rate, with the Soros network accounting for $163.6 million of that total. The effort has already drawn a legal challenge from Protect Democracy, which sued Treasury and the IRS and accused the administration of weaponizing the tax code against its political opponents. Officials inside the administration are reportedly divided over whether to move before the midterms or delay to avoid protracted court battles.

Scripture calls on civil authority to punish wrongdoing and reward that which is good, and Romans 13:4 describes the governing power as “a minister of God … an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” A tax code built to encourage genuine charitable work should not be a shield for organizations that use their status to influence politics, finance causes contrary to the public interest, or take down opponents of the regime they serve. Let us pray for Secretary Bessent and the IRS as they undertake this review, that they would act with fairness and integrity; for the organizations involved, that they would be held to account if they have abused the law; and for our nation, that those entrusted with power would remember that authority is a trust from God, to be used in righteousness.

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(Excerpt from the New York Post. Photo Credit: Niccolò Caranti – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21891838).