hillary clinton's family's charities are refiling at least five years of tax returns after an investigation revealed they had misreported tens of millions of dollars in donations from governments the charities' errors generally took the form of under reporting or over reporting donations from foreign governments, or in other instances, omitted to break out government donations entirely when reporting revenue, the charities confirmed to reuters, which uncovered the mistakes following the discovery, the clinton foundation and the clinton health access initiative said they will be refiling multiple annual tax returns and may audit returns extending as far back as 15 years in case there have been other errors the foundation and its donors have been under  intense scrutiny in recent weeks republican critics say the  foundation makes clinton, who is seeking the 2016 democratic  presidential nomination, vulnerable to undue influence her campaign team calls these claims 'absurd conspiracy  theories' following reuters' report republican presidential candidate ted cruz called on the non profit to return all of the money it received from foreign governments scroll down for video  under scrutiny: charities run by the family of hillary clinton (seen at georgetown university on wednesday) under  or over reported millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments in their tax returns  the errors, which have not been previously reported, appear  on the form 990s that all non profit organizations must file  annually with the internal revenue service to maintain their  tax exempt status a charity must show copies of the forms to  anyone who wants to see them to understand how the charity  raises and spends money the unsettled numbers on the tax returns are not evidence of  wrongdoing but tend to undermine the 990s role as a form of  public accountability, experts in charity law and transparency  advocates told reuters 'if those numbers keep changing   well, actually, we spent  this on this, not that on that   it really defeats the purpose,' said bill allison, a senior fellow at the sunlight foundation, a  government transparency advocacy group for three years in a row beginning in 2010, the clinton  foundation reported to the irs that it received zero in funds  from foreign and us governments, a dramatic fall off from the  tens of millions of dollars in foreign government contributions  reported in preceding years those entries were errors, according to the foundation:  several foreign governments continued to give tens of millions  of dollars toward the foundation's work on climate change and  economic development through this three year period those governments were identified on the foundation's annually updated donor list, along with broad indications of how much each had cumulatively given since they began donating 'we are prioritizing an external review to ensure the accuracy of the 990s from 2010, 2011 and 2012 and expect to refile when the review is completed,' craig minassian, a foundation spokesman, said in an email the clinton foundation erroneously reported it had received no funds from governments for three years   even though it previously received millions pictured, bill and hillary speak about the charity last september  the decision to review the returns was made last month  following inquiries from reuters, and the foundation has not  ruled out extending the review to tax returns extending back 15  or so years minassian declined to comment on why the foundation had not  included the necessary break down of government funding in its  990 forms he said it was rare to find an organization as  transparent as the foundation 'no charity is required to disclose their donors,' he said 'however, we voluntarily disclose our more than 300,000 donors  and post our audited financial statements on our website along  with the 990s for anyone to see' separately, the clinton health access initiative (chai), the  foundation's flagship program, is refiling its form 990s for at  least two years, 2012 and 2013, chai spokeswoman maura daley  said, describing the incorrect government grant break outs for  those two years as typographical errors chai, which is best known for providing cheaper drugs for  tens of thousands of people with hiv around the world, began  filing separate tax returns in 2010, and has previously refiled  at least once both its 2010 and 2011 form 990s changes: in light of hillary seeking the 2016 democratic presidential nomination, the foundation said it would  only continue to receive donations from six countries that are already supporting ongoing projects  'i’m #readyforhillary to return all the money she raised from foreign nations,' republican presidential candidate ted cruz said on twitter 'add your name if you are too,' he added, including a link to a cruz for president petition asking for supporters' email addresses and zip codes  for both those  years, chai said its initial filings had over reported  government grants by more than $100 million some experts in charity law and taxes said it was not  remarkable for a charity to refile an erroneous return once in a  while, but for a large, global charity to refile three or four  years in a row was highly unusual 'i've never seen amendment activity like that,' said bruce  hopkins, a kansas city lawyer who has specialized in charity law  for more than four decades, referring to the chai filings clinton stepped down from the foundation's board of  directors this month but her husband, bill clinton, and their  daughter, chelsea clinton, remain directors the foundation said last week after hillary clinton became a  candidate that it would continue to accept funding from foreign  governments, but only from six countries that are already  supporting ongoing projects chai will also continue to receive  foreign government funding, again with additional restrictions nick merrill, clinton's spokesman, has declined to answer  inquiries about the foundation and chai though mrs clinton has abdicated her board seat, gop rival cruz has zeroed in on the democratic presidential candidate in a tweets about the clinton foundation's tax headaches 'i’m #readyforhillary to return all the money she raised from foreign nations,' he said, referencing a pro clinton organization that spent more than a year laying the groundwork for her eventual announcement 'add your name if you are too,' he added, including a link to a cruz for president petition asking for supporters' email addresses and zip codes
reuters the clinton foundation the clinton health access initiative us clinton republican ted cruz
a reuters investigation uncovered errors in tax returns filed by the clinton foundation and the clinton health access initiative . for 3 years, the clinton foundation reported it had received nothing from foreign and us governments   despite receiving millions previously . it will now refile its tax returns from 2010, 2011 and 2012 but has not ruled out reviewing tax returns extending back as many as 15 years . the clinton health access initiative is refiling forms from at least 2 years . experts said it was not uncommon for charities to have to re file but said it was unusual that a global charity would have to re file for multiple years . republican presidential candidate ted cruz called on the non profit to return all of the money it received from foreign governments 