President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.
That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s
IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.
The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.
In one section of
the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A
disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family, or a Trump-owned business.
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The foundation checked “yes.”
How Donald Trump directed millions to his foundation
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Donald Trump directed millions of dollars to his tax-exempt foundation. Here's how. (Peter Stevenson, Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
Another line on
the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again.
Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf.
During the presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported on
several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation’s money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses.
