President Donald Trump declared that Harvard University would lose its tax-exempt status, a designation that has allowed the school to avoid paying levies on its revenue under a classification for educational institutions.

Trump posted the announcement after weeks of threatening an Internal Revenue Service review of the Ivy League’s tax-free treatment. 

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote early Friday morning.

Conservatives have targeted Harvard and other elite universities in recent years over accusations of ideological bias and allegations of a rise in antisemitism amid campus protests against the war in Gaza. Trump and other Republicans have accused the institutions of promoting liberal agendas and so-called “wokeness.”

“The next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson,” Trump said during a Thursday night commencement address at the University of Alabama. “It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide.” 

The IRS code prevents presidents from interfering with the federal tax agency’s decisions. But the IRS commissioner reports to the Treasury Secretary and it was unclear if Trump’s announcement stemmed from his decision or that of the independent agency.

The White House, IRS and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Trump’s fight with Harvard has escalated rapidly since the university rejected the administration’s demands to reform campus policies, arguing they went far beyond their stated efforts of combating antisemitism and threatened the school’s independence. The administration has frozen billions of dollars in funding that supported projects including ALS and tuberculosis research and Harvard has sued several U.S. agencies and top officials in response.

Harvard has warned of “grave consequences” should the Trump administration follow through on revoking its tax-exempt status. Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have rallied around Harvard. The Massachusetts lawmaker said in an interview with Bloomberg News last month that it was “flatly illegal” for the U.S. president to direct the IRS to investigate or change status for a taxpayer.

Earlier this week, the university released long awaited reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias that painted a scathing picture of how students treated each other in the wake of the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

“I’m sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter accompanying the reports.

Garber has acknowledged the need to tackle antisemitism, noting that he’s experienced it directly while serving as the university’s leader, and said Harvard is committed to working with the administration. In recent weeks, the school placed the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee on probation and forced the faculty leaders of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies to leave their posts. Harvard also suspended a partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank. Harvard has also renamed its diversity, equity and inclusion office as Community and Campus Life.

Business accounting platform Xero announced that, through a strategic partnership with billing solutions provider Bill, U.S. customers can now pay their bills from within Xero. Customers can pay multiple bills without leaving the platform; find vendors on Bill’s network; track the status of all bill payments made from Xero; get a digital record of which vendors have been paid and when; and pay their bills with two-step verification. A demo can be viewed here. Xero also announced the release of a new workpapers solution exclusively for accounting and bookkeeping partners, developed via a partnership with BGL Corporate Solutions, a compliance management and AI-powered software provider. The solution will allow the direct import of client bookkeeping data from Xero, reducing manual entry when preparing tax returns and financial statements. Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners in Australia will have the opportunity to gain early access to the new workpapers solution in the coming months for feedback. 

GreenGrowth CPAs acquired William Wong and Associates in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on Monday. 

This is GreenGrowth’s second deal of 2025 and a continuation of its strategy of buying retiring partners firms. William Wong and Associates expands GreenGrowth’s geographic footprint and adds to its client base of high net worth individuals.

GreenGrowth is headquartered in Los Angeles and has four more offices across San Francisco and Orange County, California, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Belgrade, Serbia. It offers accounting, audit and assurance, and tax services to nonprofits, high net worth individuals, and industries like life sciences and biotech, professional services, real estate, technology and cannabis. 

Its goal is to acquire at least 15 firms this year and currently has five letters of interest out, according to its founder Derek Davis. It acquired CGC Accountants & Advisors in January.

“We’re off to a bit of a slow start — this is our second one — but we have a large pipeline,” Davis told Accounting Today. “What we’re seeing that’s really interesting on the ground front is that the number of deals continues to increase regardless of the amount  of private equity firms that have come into the space. The numbers keep going up.”

William Wong and Associates was founded in 1976 and has been servicing the Hawaiian islands for more than 40 years with one managing partner, 10 employees and between 150-200 clients. It offers tax planning and preparation, bookkeeping and accounting, financial reporting and analysis, audit and assurance, and business consulting services.

“They were really focused on making sure that their staff and their clients are taken care of first,” Davis said. 

“When you look at a firm, especially in the sub-five million dollar range, you really want to make sure they care more about their clients and staff than they do about their personal payout,” he continued. “When a firm always focuses on their personal payout and that’s their number one priority, you’re always wondering, are they trying to pull something over my eyes that I don’t see?”