(Virginia) Bills to remove tax break for United Daughters of Confederacy likely headed to Youngkin

The United Daughters of the Confederacy could lose tax exemptions pending proposals that have been working their way through Virginia’s legislature. With the Senate passing House Bill 568 on Tuesday, its similar companion, Senate Bill 517, is pending review in the House.

The bills involve sections of state code that concern real estate taxes where UDC is the only specific-interest group to be exempted from deed recordation taxes. These breaks typically apply to broader organizations like churches, government buildings, and nonprofit hospitals. UDC — headquartered in Richmond — is also exempt from real estate and property taxes. If the bills become law, the organization would lose these exemptions.

The UDC is a nonprofit organization that commemorates those who served the Confederacy in the Civil War and collects artifacts and documents from that time. UDC is also known for its role in fundraising efforts to erect Confederate monuments — much of which were erected in the early 1900s during the era of Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised Black Americans. Many monuments around Virginia have come down in recent years amid changes in state law that gives local governments the authority to keep them or not.