Unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) is a relatively simple concept: It represents activities conducted by an organization that are both (1) commercial and (2) not in furtherance of the organization’s exempt purpose. UBTI is based on the idea that when a nonprofit participates in commercial activities or exploits its exempt purpose, it would be competing at an unfair advantage with for-profit entities because, as a nonprofit, it generally does not pay taxes on its income.