Don’t miss out on saving tens of thousands of dollars on your building project! The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority (WHEFA) offers tax-exempt financing for building costs to non-profit organizations.
Schools will benefit from using WHEFA for construction or renovation projects costing $3 million or more. WHEFA says schools can expect to break even on financing costs after 1.5 years.
Several WCRIS member schools have benefited from financing through WHEFA:
- Fox Valley Lutheran High School, Appleton
- HOPE Christian Schools, Milwaukee and Racine
- Mount Olive Lutheran School, Appleton
- Pius XI High School, Milwaukee
- Saint Matthew’s Lutheran School, Oconomowoc
- Saint Peter Lutheran School, Appleton
- Wisconsin Lutheran High School, Milwaukee
WHEFA assists Wisconsin non-profit institutions to obtain and maintain access to tax-exempt financing in order to finance or refinance capital improvement and expansion needs. Since inception, WHEFA has provided several hundred Wisconsin non-profit corporations access to private and public capital markets at lower costs than are available to them in the conventional marketplace.
Bonds issued by WHEFA are not considered indebtedness of the State of Wisconsin, and the state has no obligation to repay any bonds issued by WHEFA under any circumstances. Additionally, WHEFA does not utilize any state money to fund its operations.
To take advantage of tax-exempt financing, have your accountant or finance committee contact WHEFA.
Private Schools Can Save Sales Taxes on Building Materials
Thanks to a law change supported by WCRIS, any building and supply materials purchased for your school’s project is exempt from state sales taxes, whether bought by the school or a contractor on your behalf. Often, contractors do not know this and buy materials and pay the taxes, which end up on your final bill for services.
The exemption includes purchases for buildings, shelters, parking lots, athletic fields, athletic parks, water supply systems, sewage and wastewater system. So, you’ll want your general contractor to be working closely with you to take advantage of this exemption. It could save you 5% or more, depending on the county in which your school is located.
With support from WCRIS, state law was updated in 2016 to allow contractors to buy the materials on the school’s behalf. Formerly, schools would have to buy the materials and somehow store them until they were ready for use. The financial and logistical reality of that was so cumbersome that the tax exemption often went unused.
See page 4 of the WCRIS 2020-21 Legal Handbook for a quick overview of the law.
See the Wisconsin Department of Revenue page here for more information.
