HealthBlawg

David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog

  • About
  • Archives
  • Podcast
  • Press
  • Awards/Reviews
  • HIPAA
  • HCSM

Senators Grassley and Baucus looking for greater tax-exempt transparency

June 3, 2007

In the past week, Grassley and Baucus sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson laying out changes they’d like to see in the 501(c)(3) reporting and disclosure requirements (centered around Form 990 and supplemental disclosures), and asked for a response within 30 days.

They hit a number of points in their letter, mostly urging greater disclosure on Form 990 so that problematic arrangemments would be brought to light.  In the Senators’ more colorful language:

While we always hear that sunshine is the best disinfectant, sunshine can’t do its work unless we open the blinds.  The sooner we open those blinds, the better.

The areas of particular concern highlighted in the letter are the following:

  • Executive compensation
  • Endowments
  • Related organizations
  • Joint ventures
  • Governance
  • Dollars raised vs. dollars for charity
  • Hospitals

With respect to hospitals, a category of tax-exempt organization that has held their interest lately, the Senators stated that all of the concerns about public charities, generally, applied to hospitals.  They also noted with approval the Catholic Health Association’s approach to reporting hospital charity care and community benefits.  Grassley has been trying to get the IRS to mandate the CHA approach to reporting since last fall.

A word to the wise: the closer all tax-exempt hospitals hew to the CHA approach, the less likely is will be mandated by the IRS, and it’s always easier to deal with a voluntary standard than a mandatory one.

— David Harlow

Related Posts

  • What is . . . Tax-Exempt?

    If your not-for-profit institution feels as though its tax exempt status is in jeopardy, you're…

  • IRS releases draft revisions to form 990 - annual report for tax-exempt entities including hospitals

    The IRS issued proposed revisions to Form 990 today, including a new schedule for hospitals…

  • Tax-exempt hospitals focus their response to the IRS, which is questioning their status

    The IRS inquiry into the tax-exempt status of not-for-profit hospitals continues (i.e., do such hospitals…

Filed Under: Health care policy, Health Law, Hospitals, IRS, Tax exempt

« OIG issues the Compendium of Unimplemented OIG Recommendations
More info posted by CMS on Physician Quality Reporting Initiative »

Trackbacks

  1. HealthBlawg says:
    June 14, 2007 at 1:14 pm

    IRS releases draft revisions to form 990 – annual report for tax-exempt entities including hospitals

    The IRS issued proposed revisions to Form 990 today, including a new schedule for hospitals whichRequires organization to report aggregate community benefit for all facilities, and certain information regarding billings, collections, and joint ventures…

  2. Trusted.MD Network says:
    June 14, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    IRS releases draft revisions to form 990 – annual report for tax-exempt entities including hospitals

    The IRS issued proposed revisions to Form 990 today, including a new schedule for hospitals whichRequires organization to report aggregate community benefit for all facilities, and certain information regarding billings, collections, and joint ventures; r

Threads

Follow me on: Threads

Mastodon

Follow me on: Mastodon

HIPAAtools

Hipaatools

The HIPAA Compliance Toolkit

The Walking Gallery

The Walking Gallery

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Categories
  • Archives
  • Podcast Interviews
  • HIPAAtools
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Health Care Social Media
  • Speaking
  • In the Press
  • Blogroll

David Harlow

David Harlow

HealthcareNOW Radio

  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Book Me: Speaking
  • About
  • The Harlow Group LLC
Copyright © 2006–2025
HealthBlawg is a publication of The Harlow Group LLC. See Copyright notice and disclaimer.
Fair use with attribution and a link is encouraged. Click for more on David Harlow.
[footer_backtotop text="Back to top" href="#"]