A former Kennedy Center official flagged a “very unusual” omission in a newly surfaced federal tax filing as President Donald Trump threatens it.
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A Friday article by The Atlantic dug into the 990 form for the Kennedy Center that covered the fiscal year that began in October 2024 and ended last September, spanning the final months of the arts complex’s previous leadership and roughly seven months after Trump seized control.
The 990 noted, however, that the institution’s annual audit had not been completed by the time of filing. Experts pointed the gap out to The Atlantic.
An anonymous former official with knowledge of the center’s governance and financial practices told The Atlantic that the lapse stood out. Such audits are normally released to the public by January or February, the official noted, adding that it was “very unusual” for it to still be missing.
At a glance, the filing points to a strong year. The center logged more than $516 million in total revenue, a jump of nearly $210 million, or about 68 percent, from the year before. Experts who reviewed the numbers, however, said the increase leaned largely on a single federal appropriation rather than ticket sales or donations.
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Most of that money traces to $257 million in renovation funds that Trump urged Congress to bundle into his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Without that appropriation, the center appears to have spent close to $47 million more than it collected, which The Atlantic noted is a steep swing from the roughly $40 million surplus it reported a year earlier under former president Deborah Rutter.
Other entries added to the concern. The document records a $48 million bad debt expense, a write-down of revenue the organization no longer expects to receive, while program revenue tied to ticket sales fell from nearly $105 million to about $89 million.
Analysts also warned that a 990 form mixes day-to-day operating money with capital funding, making the center’s true financial footing hard to gauge from the headline totals. The filing was signed by chief financial officer Donna Arduin Kauranen, who resigned the same day Trump issued his most recent demand over the building.
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