Public Policy Articles & Analysis

A NC Senate bill (S.440) would exempt nonprofits from collecting and remitting sales tax on the ticket price or admission fees from most fundraising events. Under current state law, nonprofits and businesses are required to charge state sales tax on the ticket price or admission fees to entertainment and live events, then pass along the taxes they collect to the NC Department of Revenue.

A NC Senate bill (

A NC Senate bill (S.441) would exempt most North Carolina nonprofits from paying sales and use tax when they purchase goods and services. Currently, nonprofits pay sales tax on their purchases and can apply to the NC Department of Revenue for semi-annual refunds of the taxes they pay. This refund process creates unnecessary red tape and cash-flow issues for nonprofits.

On December 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion bill passed by Congress last week that includes a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package and funding for the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year (through September 30, 2021). Thanks to advocacy from the Center and many other nonprofits, the legislation includes several forms of relief for charitable nonprofits. Highlights of the bill for nonprofits include:

Earlier this summer, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and three other U.S. Senators introduced the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act (S. 4117), which would forgive PPP loans of up to $150,000 with the filing of a one-page attestation form. According to the Center’s recent survey, nearly half of North Carolina nonprofits received PPP loans, and the vast majority of these organizations received $150,000 or less in PPP funding and would benefit from this proposal.

State Policy Decisions Affecting NC Nonprofits in 2020

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The Federal Reserve is proposing a new loan program for charitable nonprofits that may help a few organizations as its currently written, but could help all of us if improved. The Fed’s proposed Nonprofit Loan Program would enable nonprofits with between 50 and 15,000 employees to borrow between $250,000 and $300 million. The proposal is based on the Main Street loan program for for-profit employers and, as written, includes arbitrary terms that will disqualify most nonprofit organizations.

On May 14, 2020, the Center submitted public comments to the Small Business Administration (SBA) on its interim rulemaking on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).