While many local colleges have lost federal funding or faced cuts in the last six months, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges received welcome news in the budget bill signed by President Donald Trump: they are no longer subject to the federal excise tax on endowment earnings, writes Susan Snyder for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The tax was originally enacted during Trump’s first term in 2017, and both schools have had a 1.4 percent excise tax since then. Swarthmore, with a $2.7 billion endowment, paid around $2 million last fiscal year, while Bryn Mawr, with a $1.2 billion endowment, paid approximately $443,000.
The new law exempts small colleges with 3,000 or fewer students. Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr have been part of a nationwide coalition of 25 small private liberal arts colleges advocating for the exemption, arguing that the tax placed a disproportionate burden on their operations.
“While I continue to believe that taxing any college or university endowment is misguided public policy, I am grateful that the exemption granted to small colleges like Bryn Mawr means we can focus our endowment resources on where they matter most – on students and their futures,” said Wendy Cadge, president of Bryn Mawr.
Read more about the tax changes and how they affect Bryn Mawr College in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
