Allowing credit unions to retain their federal income tax exemption enables the financial cooperatives to fulfill their mission to “promote thrift and to provide access to credit for provident purposes to members.” That is one of the key points made by Credit Union National Association President/CEO Bill Cheney in a Thursday letter thanking House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) for his treatment of credit unions in his comprehensive tax reform discussion draft released a day earlier.

As clarified by CUNA just hours after the reform draft was released, the specific credit union tax status is left untouched in the tax reform plan, and staff of the tax writing committee stated to CUNA that the proposal has “no intention of imposing any additional taxes on credit unions.”

Cheney was quickly able to call the proposal “a big win for credit unions in that it makes no changes to our tax status,” particularly notable when so many others could face major hits under the reform plan.

“The proposed bill is the outcome of the months of challenging, unrelenting work by credit unions and state leagues–and our support for the measure is our way of showing our gratitude to Chairman Camp for listening to us,” he said.

In his Thursday letter to Camp, Cheney wrote that “the benefits that Americans–those who are credit union members as well as those who use other financial institutions–receive as a result of credit unions’ employment of the tax exemption are substantially greater than the cost of the exemption to the government.”

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