Republican National Committee Asks IRS to Audit Clinton Foundation Charity

The Republican National Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service to audit a Clinton Foundation charity Tuesday after the charity indicated it would not refile tax returns that misreported money it received by millions of dollars, Reuters reported.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton speaks during a town hall meeting at Grinnell College Nov. 3, 2015, in Grinnell, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The Clinton Health Access Initiative had said it would amend tax returns after Reuters found errors in them this past spring, but this week, CHAI said it wouldn't refile since the errors had "no material impact," spokeswoman Maura Daley told Reuters.

That didn't sit well with the GOP, as RNC Chairman Reince Priebus outlined in a letter to the IRS, which Reuters obtained.

"The American people deserve to know whether the largest philanthropic arm of the Clinton Foundation continues to misreport the funds it receives from foreign governments, and whether this might lead to the potential for further conflicts of interest," Priebus noted in the letter.

CHAI told Reuters that its total income was correctly reported for 2012 and 2013, while errors were made concerning government versus non-government income. Hillary Clinton representatives didn't respond to requests for comment, Reuters added.

The Clinton Foundation charities are among several areas that have been combed over as Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner to receive the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2016.

More from Reuters:

Republicans have said the charities, which rely heavily on foreign government funding for their work on health, educational and environmental projects, present a hopeless conflict of interest for Clinton, who has dismissed this as a baseless political attack. She severed her formal ties with the charities after announcing her candidacy in April, but her husband and daughter continue to have leading roles.

The criticism intensified in April after the charities conceded that they did not fully comply with the ethics agreement Clinton signed with Barack Obama's incoming presidential administration in 2008 in order for her to become his secretary of state.

A spokesman for the IRS said charities should refile a form 990 if it becomes aware of an error. Federal law bans the IRS from discussing specific cases, and it remains unclear whether it will agree that an audit of CHAI is necessary.

While it is not unusual for charities to refile a form 990 on occasion and that doing so is not evidence of wrongdoing, several tax experts told Reuters it was odd for a charity to make large mistakes several years in row. CHAI had previously refiled its 2010 and 2011 tax returns after over-reporting the amount it received from government grants by tens of millions of dollars.

Read the full Reuters story here.

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