Action Alert: Tell Congress to Repeal New Nonprofit Transit Tax

December 10, 2018

Repeal of New Nonprofit Transportation Tax Is Possible — But Members of Congress Need to Hear from Nonprofits Now!

Leaders in Washington, DC representing charitable, religious, and philanthropic organizations have convinced most lawmakers that the new 21-percent unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on nonprofits for transportation benefits expenses, like transit passes and parking, should be repealed. Indeed, even the House tax-writing committee chair who put this new unfair and burdensome tax into the 2017 law is now saying it ought to be eliminated. BUT, that’s not enough. Your Representatives and Senators need to hear from you and other nonprofits – immediately – if we hope to turn the general agreement into urgent action. Congress must take action to repeal the transportation tax on nonprofits, and there are only two weeks (10 working days) to do it before a new Congress takes over and advocacy efforts will have to start all over again.

Take five minutes today to do any (preferably all) of the following:

  • Call your Representative and Senators and tell them:
    • The transportation tax on nonprofits is unfair and burdensome, and must be repealed as part of any bill passing in Congress this year.
    • Nonprofits – charitable organizations, houses of worship, and foundations – are all united in opposition to this tax, and urge them to let their leadership know that repealing the income tax on expenses by tax-exempt nonprofits is essential before Congress wraps up work for the year.
  • Email your Representative and Senators using their contact forms (found on their home pages) and deliver the same message – the income tax on expenses by tax-exempt nonprofits for providing transportation benefits must be repealed before the end of the year.
  • Tweet your Representative and Senators to deliver this simple message:

.[Representative/Senator’s Twitter Handle] Don’t leave DC this year without repealing the nonprofit transportation tax (Code Sec 512a7). Every dollar spent on this tax is a dollar diverted from our mission of serving constituents in our state.

 Contact information is available here. Please contact us with any questions about this issue.

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