IRS Plans to Audit Utah Foundation

The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit a Utah foundation that has ties to the Leavitt family, which includes the U.S. secretary of health and human services, Mike Leavitt, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Nearly $500,000 in charitable contributions from the Leavitt family went to the Southern Utah Foundation, which passed the money on to Southern Utah University, according to the newspaper. The university, in turn, used the money to provide student-housing scholarships for apartments owned by the Leavitt family, the paper reports.

A spokesman for the university said it did not plan to make any changes in the way it oversaw the Leavitt’s donation. The Southern Utah Foundation and the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation said they would review their arrangement to ensure they were complying with tax law but did not intend to change the focus of the gift.

An IRS spokesman would not comment on whether the agency was doing an investigation.