The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee on May 16 held the first in a series of hearings on oversight of tax-exempt organizations by the Internal Revenue Service. Testifying on the concerns of tax-exempt hospitals, Michael Regier, senior vice president of legal and corporate affairs for VHA Inc., said VHA, the American Hospital Association and the Healthcare Financial Management Association have urged the IRS to streamline and simplify its revised Schedule H for hospitals.
Noting that the agency has yet to issue any regulations implementing the new requirements for tax-exempt hospitals under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Regier urged Congress to ensure “that hospitals are able to direct their limited resources toward meeting their communities’ most significant health needs as opposed to complying with excessively burdensome paperwork requirements.” In the context of comprehensive tax reform, he urged the committee to avoid taking any action that would jeopardize the income tax exemption for charitable hospitals, tax-exempt financing for hospital facilities, or deductibility of charitable contributions and bequests for hospital donors.
Testifying for the National Association of College and University Business Officers, Cornell University Chief Financial Officer Joanne DeStefano called the revised 990 Form “so complicated that our trustees don't know where to begin.”
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