IRS Strips Tax-Exempt Status From Richard Spencer’s ‘Alt-Right’ Think Tank

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By Sam Kestenbaum March 14, 2017

The nonprofit run by white nationalist Richard Spencer has lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns with the federal government, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

“I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to make a comment because I don’t understand this stuff,” Spencer told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not good. We’ll figure it out.”

It is also unclear whether Spencer had filed the proper paperwork to allow his think tank, National Policy Institute, to raise funds in its homestate of Virginia, and whether Spencer violated federal rules that bar nonprofits from supporting or opposing political candidates.

Spencer said an IRS error led him to believe NPI was not required to file tax returns, and that he would appeal the decision.

NPI was founded in 2005 by right-wing publisher William Regnery II. Leading white nationalist Jared Taylor was previously the vice president of the group which is “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world,” according to the website.

Spencer took over NPI in 2011, around the same time he began popularizing his “alt-right” brand of white nationalism.

NPI’s nonprofit status allowed supporters to make tax-deductible donations to support Spencer’s white nationalist work.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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