YOU DID IT! THE GOVERNOR SIGNED THE UBIT LAW!

December 10, 2018 - Congratulations NPCC members! You did it! Because of your advocacy, late Friday night, Governor Cuomo signed the law that decouples the state and federal tax law so that New York State will NOT tax nonprofits on commuter benefits. This means the state tax burden of 9% on all qualified transportation benefits has been eliminated! (See below about what we’re doing to repeal the 21% tax at the federal level.)

Let the Governor know how grateful we are to him for signing this law. Please call or email Governor Cuomo and thank him:

Thank you, Governor Cuomo, for standing up for nonprofits and signing S8831/A11051 into law to prevent nonprofits from being taxed on commuter benefits. My nonprofit’s resources can now be used for our mission. Thank you for being our champion in protecting New Yorkers against the adverse consequences of federal tax reform!

Tweet at Governor Cuomo:

• @NYGovCuomo – THANK YOU for protecting New Yorkers from Federal tax changes by signing the UBIT bill S8831/A11051! Thank you for being our champion!
• @NYGovCuomo – THANK YOU for standing up for New Yorkers and rejecting harmful Federal tax changes by signing the UBIT bill S8831/A11051. Without it, my #nonprofit would have had to divert thousands of $$$ from programs to state taxes. Thank you for being our champion!

Don’t forget to thank the legislators who made this happen!

• @AmyPaulin, thank you for championing A11051 in the Assembly and helping nonprofits by introducing and passing legislation to eliminate the state portion of the UBIT on commuter benefits!
• #SenatorRazenhofer, thank you for championing S8831 in the Senate and helping nonprofits by introducing and passing legislation to eliminate the state portion of the UBIT on commuter benefits!

Thanks to our coalition!

NPCC – and our members – could not have done this work alone. NPCC put together a coalition that helped take action and get the work out across the sector. Thanks to our wonderful coalition partners: Commission for Colleges and Independent Universities, Fiscal Policy Institute, Lawyers Alliance for New York, Human Services Council, Mazars USA, New York Council on Nonprofits, Philanthropy New York, RSM LLP US, UJA Federation, Venable LLP. Look for our joint press release that will be released tomorrow!

TAKE ACTION!

Our fight isn’t over yet! We still have to repeal the federal UBIT tax on commuter benefits!

Repeal of Federal New Nonprofit Transportation Tax Is Possible -- But …
Members of Congress Need to Hear from Nonprofits – Now!

Leaders and lobbyists 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 the expenses for transportation benefits, like transit passes and parking, makes no sense and should be repealed. Indeed, even the chairman of the House tax-writing committee 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 that the law is wrong into urgent action that gets it repealed. Congress must take action to repeal the transportation tax on nonprofits, and there’re 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:

1. Call your Representative and Senators at 202-225-3121 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. Tell them that 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 nonsensible income tax on expenses by tax-exempt nonprofits is essential before Congress wraps up work for the year.
2. Email your Representative and Senators using their contact forms (found on their home pages) and deliver the same message – the nonsensible income tax on nonprofit expenses by tax-exempt nonprofits for providing transportation benefits must be repealed before the end of the year.
3. 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.”