Business event planners, and especially association planners, potentially have a valuable new tool to drive attendance and revenue for their meetings in the form of the recently passed Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workplace Act, part of President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
The bipartisan Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workplace Act sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in the Senate and Rep. Robert J. Wittman (R-VA-1) in the House allows for the expansion of 529 education savings plans to cover the costs of post-secondary workforce training and credentialling programs such as CMP and other credentials beyond college degrees.
Similar to a Health Savings Account (HSA) but instead for education, the legislation allows for taxpayers to contribute pre-tax money to a 529 plan, also known as a Qualified Tuition Program.
[Related: What Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Means for the Meetings Industry]
“The bottom line for what it does is it turns college savings plans into career savings plans,” said Kyle Hayes, senior director, public policy for ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership. “Traditionally, these 529 plans have been geared toward people saving for college, and you get a tax break when you utilize the plans for that under this. Expansion 529 plans can now be used for post-secondary training and credentialing. So, things like licenses, non-governmental certifications or to pay for tuition fees, books, testing fees and continuing education fees for anything that's deemed to be a qualified post-secondary credential.”
Like HSAs, withdrawals taken out of the account are not taxed if they’re used for qualifying expenses for higher education, and until that time, the money grows when the market grows, with the growth in the value of those assets not taxed, either.
“It expands the spending power you have to use that money for those qualifying educators and expenses,” Hayes noted.
Contributors can create a 529 plan for themselves or anyone else, Hayes said.
Organizations that qualify certifications, according to Hayes, include Credentialing Excellence, the National Commission on Certifying Agencies and the American National Standards Institute.
“The main sort of filter for what applies and doesn't apply is if you're accredited by those agencies that I listed, or if a particular certification doesn't fit in that bucket right now, the IRS will go through a rule-making process and make a determination about other certifications,” Hayes noted.
Hayes said having been signed by the president, the bill is in effect now but there will additional rulemaking regarding decisions about additional certifications.
“I would encourage folks who are interested in whether or not their certification applies, or how to go about utilizing this new expansion, to contact their 529 plan administrators, the state agencies that run 529 plans in many states, to see exactly how they're implementing this expansion,” he said.
A Boon to Planners
Association expert KiKi L’Italien, former CEO and host of Association Chat and current operator of KiKiLItalien.com and AmplifiedGrowthMedia.com, believes that the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workplace Act will be a boon to the industry, even if other parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill may be problematic.
“One of the great things that associations can do is offer this ability for people to receive training and education outside of higher education,” L’Italien said. “It's a positive because associations are geared up for this. That industry is made exactly for providing that kind of opportunity, that kind of training.”
Although the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workplace Act is generally viewed very positively in the association segment, L’Italien believes many in the associations world have conflicting views.
“There are lot of difficult conversations because people are afraid that if they support this positive thing that they're showing support for all of this other stuff that they don't agree with,” she said, referring to the general negative view of the One Big Beautiful Bill. “That's kind of been a problematic issue for those of us that are working in the space.
Besides garnering additional revenue and in-person and virtual meetings attendance, the act could also ease another pressing issue in the association segment: its talent pipeline, or lack thereof.
“Something that was a really big discussion point throughout this broader debate about expanding 529s to credentials and training is just having alternative pathways to the four-year college degree for career success, whether you're a young person just starting out or if you're in the middle of your career,” Hayes said.
A Big Issue Impacting the Association Segment
In his role co-leading the government affairs team for ASAE, Hayes has his finger on the pulse of federal government actions that impact the segment. Tax policy is a major issue many are worried about.
“Congress just wrapped up a debate on tax policy where they considered increasing the tax burden on associations and other nonprofit organizations, and some of the proponents who want to see taxation on these groups increased have highlighted revenue sources like conference registration fees as potentially being a revenue source they could tap to make subject to taxation, along with things like royalties,” Hayes said. “We spent a lot of time this year highlighting for Congress why raising the tax burden on associations is so detrimental; the kinds of things that associations currently do that they wouldn't be able to do if some of their revenues were diverted to tax burden.
“So [at our annual conference], we're going to talk about that as one of the tax challenges facing associations,” he added, “but one of the bright spots is this 529 expansion, which was passed in the same bill where these harmful tax provisions were considered.”
Learn More About ASAE's Annual Conference
In January, ASAE launched the Community Impact Coalition, which includes more than 100 nonprofit organizations to tell the story of that sector and why tax-exempt status is so important.
“We deployed a full, comprehensive advocacy program through the conclusion of the reconciliation bill that was signed on July 4 by the president,” Hayes said. “But we're looking toward the potential of similar threats being there for associations and other nonprofits through other legislative debates through the end of the current Congress. You could see another reconciliation bill get considered in the fall, and so that's the primary place where we're looking for this discussion to reemerge and continue to be had especially by lawmakers on the House side.”
