Following the National Football League’s decision to give up its much-maligned tax-exempt status, ABA President and CEO Frank Keating called on Congress to examine “another outrageous tax exemption: the one that allows multibillion-dollar credit unions that function just like taxpaying banks to avoid paying any federal taxes whatsoever.”
In an op-ed appearing today in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Keating examined the foundations of the credit unions’ tax exemption: serving people of “modest means” who share a meaningful common bond. The biggest bank-like CUs are failing at this, Keating noted -- nearly half of credit union members are upper income. In Oregon, just 1 percent of CU home loans went to low-income borrowers.
Meanwhile, credit unions have all but gutted “common bond” requirements using loopholes that allow new members to join via organizations whose primary apparent purpose is to qualify people for CU membership.
“I have no problem with the many credit unions that hew to their original mission, honor their common bond and serve people of modest means with unique financial needs,” he concluded. “But like the NFL, the big credit unions that continue to abuse their tax privileges should voluntarily agree to pay. And if they don’t, Congress should insist on it.”
Read the op-ed.
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I call upon ABA President Frank Keating to call for Congress to review the Subchapter S status for banks which allow those banks to be free from corporate taxes at the federal level. The Subchapter S benefit was never designed to be for billion dollar banks.
ReplyDelete"Even more outrageous are what these big credit unions are doing with their members’ profits (and taxpayers’ foregone revenues). They are buying multimillion-dollar naming rights to stadiums and arenas across the country — sometimes including access to luxury box seats in the deals. The biggest CUs are building elaborate skyscraper headquarters for themselves."
ReplyDeleteNo kidding! It's almost like credit unions have to advertise and house their staffs, just like any other business! They're acting ALMOST as slimy and disgusting as the banks themselves! Except, of course, you don't see CUs absorbing billions in fines and punitive damage judgments for massively defrauding their customers and the economy as a whole. Baby steps, CUs will get there eventually!