Taxing Income from Mailing List and Affinity Card Arrangements: A Proposal

The courts' and the Internal Revenue Code ("Code")2 presently treat income received by a tax-exempt organization for affinity card programs' and mailing list rentals4 similarly; neither type of income is subject to taxation.5 This Article asserts that equal treatment should not be the case. Because donors have not consented to sell their personal information, the exception for royalty income from the unrelated business income tax ("UBIT") should not permit the tax-free rental of a nonprofit organization's mailing list. Affinity card income, on the other hand, should continue to be nontaxable since any income received from these programs comes from the donors themselves and therefore should be treated as a form of nondeductible contribution.