Ashley Biden’s Charity Failed To Disclose $500,000 in Donations to IRS, Complaint Alleges

‘What other contributions is she hiding?’ watchdog asks

Ashley Biden’s charity has a $500,000 discrepancy in its books, a watchdog alleged in a complaint filed with the IRS on Monday.

During the height of her father’s presidency in 2023, Ashley Biden launched a walk-in trauma recovery center in Philadelphia equipped with infrared saunas to help women overcome mental health challenges. Known as the Women’s Wellness Spa(ce), the former first daughter’s charity supposedly got off the ground with at least $500,000 in seed funding in 2023. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Archewell Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation each reported in their tax forms granting $250,000 to Ashley Biden’s charitable venture in 2023, figures that should have been reflected in the Women’s Wellness Spa(ce)’s Form 990 tax filing.

But the Women’s Wellness Spa(ce) told a much different story to the IRS, reporting in its 2023 tax filing that it received just $170,296 from all sources that year, and that it didn’t receive any contributions from a single source greater than $5,000, seemingly contradicting the financial reporting of its two largest benefactors. Ashley Biden signed the document as the charity’s president under penalty of perjury.

To Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, the documents show that Ashley Biden’s charity clearly violated IRS rules by failing to disclose $500,000 in contributions it received in 2023. Kamenar filed a complaint on behalf of the watchdog group on Monday demanding the IRS audit the Women’s Wellness Spa(ce) to discover if it failed to report any other grants in 2023 and possibly impose sanctions upon the former first daughter for violating the agency’s financial disclosure rules.

“Ashley Biden’s failure to disclose to the IRS receiving $500,000 in grants in 2023 raises the question of what other contributions is she hiding,” Kamenar told the Washington Free Beacon.

Tax malfeasance is somewhat of an endemic problem among former president Joe Biden’s children. Ashley Biden’s brother, Hunter Biden, unlawfully claimed tens of thousands of dollars in payments to prostitutes and sex clubs as legitimate business expenses during the 2010s when he was addicted to crack cocaine. Hunter Biden in September faced up to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, but those charges were wiped clean from his record after his father granted him a blanket pardon for any crimes he may have committed since 2014.

Joe Biden also issued blanket pardons for his brothers, James and Francis, and his sister, Valerie, and their spouses. Ashley Biden was one of the few members of Joe Biden’s immediate family who didn’t receive a pardon from the former president.

An accountant for Ashley Biden’s charity, Greg Mangasarian, told the Free Beacon that the Archewell Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation pledged their respective $250,000 grants in 2023 but didn’t distribute the bulk of the funds until 2024.

“The Women’s Wellness Space received $150,000 in 2023 and will report the balance in 2024,” Mangasarian said.

Be that as it may, Kamenar said, the Women’s Wellness Spa(ce) uses the accrual method of accounting, which means it’s required to disclose grants when they’re committed, not when they’re received. The watchdog said Ashley Biden could possibly have to pay a fine if the IRS confirms his assessment that she made errors in her charity’s 2023 tax return.

Archewell and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation did not return requests for comment.

Markle, a close confidant of Joe Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, was a vocal supporter of the former president during his successful election and has long been rumored to be eyeing a future career in politics, the New York Post reported. Kamenar said her $250,000 contribution to Ashley Biden’s charity in 2023, when Biden was committed to running for a second term, could have been intended to indirectly curry favor with the then-president.

Kamenar isn’t the only watchdog raising questions about Markle’s contribution to Ashley Biden’s charity. The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in February called for “significant scrutiny” of the donation and whether Markle and Prince Harry gave the funds to find a way into Joe Biden’s inner circle, the Daily Mail reported.

Kamenar’s complaint Monday builds upon another IRS complaint he filed against Ashley Biden’s charity in March alleging she vastly overreported the amount of time she spent working for Women’s Wellness Spa(ce) and failed to disclose all the members of its board of directors in its 2023 tax return.