An affiliate group of the Clinton Foundation said on Wednesday that it would correct mistakes in its tax forms, after Republicans called on the IRS to audit the organization.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative initially said last spring that it would submit amended tax forms for 2012 and 2013, in response to a Reuters report detailing several inaccuracies in its filings. But on Monday, CHAI told Politico that it had no plans to refile because the errors, which involved over-reporting government grants, were relatively minor.
The group also failed to report several foreign government contributions to the State Department for vetting, as required under an ethics agreement between Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.
The group reversed itself again on Wednesday, after the Republican National Committee filed an official complaint with the IRS requesting an audit.
"As previously stated, the minor errors on the 2012 and 2013 CHAI 990s are immaterial and do not require refiling, yet in response to recent media interest in the forms, CHAI has decided to refile the returns in order to be fully transparent," said the group’s spokesperson, Maura Daley, in a statement to Politico.
The RNC told Politico that there are still grounds for an independent IRS audit to ensure that all foreign government contributions to the group have been disclosed:
A widely-publicized Reuters report in April said the organization, which focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment and vaccination programs, planned to refile its annual tax returns known as Forms 990 after acknowledging errors in the reporting of government grants. The organization also acknowledged that it did not submit several new contributions from foreign countries for a State Department ethics review as a conflict-of-interest agreement signed when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009 appeared to require. …
"CHAI has failed to comply with federal tax rules or the ethics agreement the Clintons negotiated with the Obama Administration, and re-filing erroneous returns 7 months after the fact amid political pressure is hardly a show of good faith," Priebus said in a statement. "The IRS should conduct an independent audit of CHAI’s finances to ensure that foreign government funding is fully accounted for so voters can get the full picture of the conflicts of interest that would come with a Clinton presidency."