On Monday, the White House released President Biden’s blueprint for the FY 2023 federal budget. The President’s budget recommendations include a total of $5.8 trillion in federal spending and plans to reduce the federal deficit by $1 billion over the next decade. A few of President Biden’s tax proposals could have implications for nonprofits, including:

The President’s budget recommendations are not binding on Congress, but they highlight some of the Administration’s tax, spending, and policy priorities for the upcoming year.

Last year’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expanded and improved the child tax credit in three important ways:

The expanded and prepaid child tax credit helped lift many North Carolina families with children out of poverty, helping them pay for child care, food, home and car repairs, and medical expenses last summer and fall. Most families with children received half of their child tax credit as monthly payments during the second half of 2021, thanks largely to nonprofits helping these families provide the necessary information to the Internal Revenue Service.

Families are due to receive the remainder of their child tax credits as refunds when they file their 2021 federal income taxes. Your nonprofit can do three things to help families in your community access the full child tax credit:

More than two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, charitable nonprofits continue to face financial and operational challenges related to the pandemic and to the nonprofit workforce shortage. These challenges are making it difficult – and unsustainable – for nonprofits to provide needed programs and services in our communities.

Our elected leaders in Washington, D.C. have the power to help address many nonprofit pandemic and workforce shortage challenges. But for that to happen, we need organizations like yours to join a national effort to persuade President Biden and leaders in Congress to prioritize policy solutions to help solve three major problems hindering the work of nonprofits:

Will you join the Center and 150+ other North Carolina nonprofits in adding your nonprofit’s name to the national sign-on letter urging federal policymakers to enact several specific policy solutions that would address these three issues? Read the letter (updated with the names of all 1,500+ nonprofits that have signed on thus far) and review this background information to learn more about the specific policy solutions that nonprofits are seeking. Thank you if your organization has already signed on to the letter!

Next week, several members of the U.S. House of Representatives are scheduled to introduce the Nonprofit Sector Strength and Partnership Act. The goal of the bill is to amplify the voice of the charitable nonprofit sector with federal policy makers. The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits has endorsed this bill.

The bill would establish several structures through which the federal government could engage with nonprofits, including a nonprofit-focused office in the White House with a commission on federal grants reforms, an interagency council to promote government/nonprofit partnerships, and an advisory board on the nonprofit sector. The bill also would direct federal agencies to provide better and more regular data on nonprofit jobs and volunteers, and for the Internal Revenue Service to provide more clarity on the prohibition on political campaign intervention by 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

The U.S. Department of Education is overhauling the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to provide a path to relief for millions of nonprofit and other public service workers struggling under the weight of student loan debt. To help nonprofit employees learn more about the improved access to student loan forgiveness, the National Council of Nonprofits and the Student Borrower Protection Center are offering a free webinar on Accessing Public Service Loan Forgiveness next Tuesday, April 5 at 1:00 p.m. Register here.

The Center provides Nonprofit Policy Update each week as a benefit to its nonprofit members. However, to help all North Carolina nonprofits respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we're temporarily providing this newsletter to non-member nonprofits. Don’t miss out – become a member to ensure you continue receiving these updates along with many other valuable benefits.