AAU universities are nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations working to improving human life and well-being through research, and are educating tomorrow’s visionary leaders and global citizens.
AAU members primarily finance their operations through state funding, annual charitable giving, endowment income, tuition, and federal research grants and contracts.
Research universities require complex management and financial systems to run their operations and to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. At the same time, federal tax law can have a significant impact on these universities. AAU monitors federal issues that affect the ability of universities to carry out their missions.
Endowments are composed of charitable donations to support students and science -- but an unprecedented tax on these endowments, passed in 2017, is reducing these funds' ability to continue supporting student financial aid and scientific breakthroughs that benefit everyday American families.
Charitable gifts are a critically important source of revenue to universities. These gifts are sometimes used to fund current operations through annual giving campaigns. Many charitable gifts are made specifically to an institution's endowment to support specific purposes and activities - such as student scholarships or medical research - both in the present and for many years to come.
AAU joined ACE and 7 other associations in submitting comments to the Internal Revenue Service on a possible error in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that could prevent some public universities from benefiting from green energy tax credits included in the law.
AAU joined 15 other associations in urging the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to include the Tax-Free Pell Grant Act in end-of-the year tax legislation.
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AAU, ACE, and four other higher education associations submitted a joint letter to the Ways & Means Committee leadership voicing opposition for HR 3913 & HR 3914, the Protecting American Students Act and the University Accountability Act.
The Section 127 Coalition, an alliance of more than 60 organizations, including AAU, sent a letter to Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) urging him to support two bipartisan bills – the Upskilling and Retraining Assistance Act (H.R. 6401) and the Upward Mobility Enhancement Act (H.R. 6402) – as well as other provisions that would expand and modernize Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code. LaHood was recently appointed to lead the House Ways and Means Committee’s Tax Team on the American Workforce.
AAU, along with 14 other higher education organizations, joined a letter led by ACE to House leadership expressing strong opposition to section 6 of H.R. 6585, the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act.
Letters | Student Aid | Student Aid Tax Issues | Affordability and Student Aid | Higher Education Regulation | Higher Education Legislation
AAU submitted a letter to House leadership regarding H.R.. 6585, the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act, expressing a strong opposition to the offset included in the bill that would harm some institutions of higher education.
Letters | Student Aid | Student Aid Tax Issues | Affordability and Student Aid | Higher Education Regulation | Higher Education Legislation
AAU joined the American Council on Education (ACE) and 18 other higher education organizations in endorsing the Tax-Free Pell Grant Act (H.R. 3000), which “would repeal the taxability of Pell Grants and help hundreds of thousands of low-income Pell Grant recipients access the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC).”
Letters | Student Aid | Student Aid Tax Issues | Affordability and Student Aid | Higher Education Regulation | Higher Education Legislation | Taxation & Finance
