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 The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation's flagship health
program conceded earlier this year it had misreported by millions of
the dollars the money it was given by governments compared with
non-government donors in its tax returns for 2012 and 2013.
The charities have come under intense scrutiny this year with
Hillary Clinton remaining the favorite to become the Democratic
Party's nominee in the November 2016 presidential election.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) originally said it was
amending the forms, known as form 990s, after Reuters discovered the
errors in the spring. This week, CHAI said it had decided against
refiling, saying the errors had "no material impact," CHAI
spokeswoman Maura Daley said.
The Republican National Committee disagrees, its chairman, Reince
Priebus, said on Tuesday in his letter to IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen, a copy of which was given to Reuters.
 "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 wrote.
Daley declined to comment beyond repeating that CHAI "does not
believe a refiling is necessary." CHAI says the total amount of
income was correctly reported for both years, but the breakdown of
government against non-government funding had been muddled up.
Spokesmen for Hillary Clinton did not respond to requests for
comment.
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.
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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.
The form 990s are used by the IRS to ensure a charity is not in
breach of its tax-exempt status, and the forms must be made public
so people can see how a charity raises and spends money.
The Clinton Foundation, which files tax returns separately from
CHAI, also said earlier this year it expected to refile three
erroneous tax returns after Reuters found it had wrongly reported
receiving nothing from foreign governments in 2010, 2011 and 2012. A
foundation spokesman told news website Politico, which first
reported CHAI's decision not to refile, this week that it was still
reviewing its accounts for those years.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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