Board member writes ‘members will pay the price’ of any changes to credit union tax status

In an op-ed for The Virginian Pilot, America’s Credit Unions Board Member (and immediate past board chair) Brian Schools warned that current threat to credit unions’ tax status “could undermine their ability to serve the very people they were created to help.”

Schools, who is president/CEO of Chartway Credit Union in Virginia Beach, Va., shared Virginia credit unions’ annual $29.5 billion impact on the state’s economy. “Credit unions operate as not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperatives with a singular purpose: to serve people, not shareholders. That mission enables us to reinvest in our members, offering lower loan rates, fewer fees, and financial education that supports long-term financial well-being,” he wrote. If Congress changes the credit union tax status, “those benefits will shrink, and members will pay the price.”

“The same banks that received massive tax breaks in 2017 now want to eliminate the credit union tax exemption — even though banks serve shareholders while credit unions serve people,” he writes. “The good news is that credit unions are fighting back. The ‘Don’t Tax My Credit Union’ movement is mobilizing members across the country to speak up, urging Congress to protect the institutions that 140 million Americans — including nearly six million Virginians — rely on.”

Credit unions are encouraged to engage in the Don’t Tax My Credit Union campaign both in grassroots contacts and other outreach. America's Credit Unions’ Don’t Tax My Credit Union Member Activation Program site has a press kit with resources to help write op-eds, letters to the editor and more, along with other resources.