‘Alt-right’ group regains IRS tax-exempt status

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Internal Revenue Service has reinstated the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit operated by white nationalist Richard Spencer, who has been banned from using mainstream online platforms to raise money.

Spencer’s Alexandria, Virginia-based National Policy Institute Inc. automatically lost its tax-exempt status more than a year ago after it failed to file tax returns for three consecutive years.

A letter signed by an IRS official says the nonprofit’s reinstatement was effective July 12. Spencer says he learned of the change in August.

Spencer says the reinstatement is a “nice, small victory” after getting banned by online payment processors PayPal and Stripe after a deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Spencer coined the term “alt-right” to describe a fringe movement mixing white nationalism, anti-Semitism and other far-right extremist views.