Nonprofit advocates applaud parking tax repeal

WASHINGTON—The federal government will no longer burden churches and other nonprofit organizations with a tax on fringe benefits related to transportation and parking. President Donald Trump signed an appropriations bill on Dec. 20 that included the repeal of the unprecedented tax. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which led a two-year-long effort to remove the tax, praised the repeal’s bipartisan support in the House and Senate. More than 2,500 organizations united to oppose the tax, according to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Why did lawmakers try to tax nonprofits? Congress originally tucked the controversial provision into the 2017 tax overhaul to compensate for corporate tax cuts. Churches, nonprofit ministries, and other charities criticized the tax because it diverted needed dollars away from their work and calling.

Dig deeper: Read more about the effort to repeal the tax in my report in The Stew.