In honor of CU Times' 25th anniversary, credit union leaders pondered issues raised in the March 26, 1990 edition of CU Times, and discussed where they stand today.

In March of 1990, the ABA had proposed a three-part tax test for credit unions. As reported by CU Times, under the ABA's plan, a credit union would retain its tax exemption if it had less than $10 million in assets and did not make loans, accept deposits or provide any other services to commercial firms or government entities.

A credit union would also have to maintain a written statement of a single common bond of membership, which must be an affiliation of natural persons based on a common employer, a common place of education, or similar relationship that includes a common objective. According to the ABA, community-based credit unions would fail to meet this test and would therefore be required to pay state, local and federal taxes at the bank rate.