Suggesting credit unions don’t pay taxes is playing “loose with the facts,” J. Scott Sullivan, president/CEO of the Nebraska Credit Union League wrote to the Lincoln Journal-Star this week. Sullivan responded to recent attacks from Nebraska bankers in his letter, highlighting the differences between not-for-profit community credit unions and for-profit banks.

“In fact, credit unions like MembersOwn Credit Union pay the exact same state taxes as banks including, but not limited to, the Financial Institution Deposits Tax, property taxes and sales taxes,” he writes. “Bankers also omit how banks won big tax breaks with the 2017 federal tax bill, lowering their effective corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Banks want to pretend not-for-profit credit unions are unduly competing with banks, but common-sense Nebraskans aren’t fooled by record profits last year.”

Sullivan cites Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation data showing that bankins nationwide saw their profits hit $236.7 billio in 2018, a 44% increase over 2017. Banks in Nebraska saw $1 billion in net profits in 2018 alone.

“The only thing standing between banks and even higher profits are not-for-profit credit unions, which are really behind the deep-seated anger of the banks and their extraordinary efforts to limit financial choice for Nebraska consumers,” he writes.