WASHINGTON—In response to the latest banker attacks against credit unions, NAFCU sent a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill to “set the record straight.”
“While credit unions focus on telling the story of how they are serving their nearly 120 million members – American consumers – bankers continue to put resources into attacks on credit unions in an effort to eliminate competition, despite continuing record profits for the banking industry,” wrote Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler. “While banking trade groups have called on Congress to change the tax status of credit unions, they fail to disclose that the banking industry received tens of billions of dollars in annual tax breaks from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“They also fail to point out that nearly one-third of all banks are Subchapter S corporations and do not pay corporation income taxes themselves. These annual tax breaks for banks far outpace the annual tax expenditure of the credit union tax exemption. They also don’t take into account how the credit union tax status provides benefits to the economy at large,” Thaler continued.
Outlining the facts of the “credit union difference,” Thaler pointed to a NAFCU study that found the total benefit credit unions provide the greater economy is roughly $16 billion in U.S. economic growth per year.