Legislation

With Americans' access to health care expanding because of changes in the health-care system spearheaded by the Obama administration, state and local governments hungry for revenue are creating fiscal barriers that limit nonprofit hospitals' ability to provide needed services, a trade group for nonprofit health-care providers' philanthropic programs says.

Some lawmakers, claiming nonprofit health-care groups and hospitals do not provide enough community benefit, have "stripped hospitals of their rightful entitlement to tax-exempt status," says the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.

Other lawmakers have tried to "extract funds from nonprofits by eliminating specific tax exemptions and instituting new fees and taxes," the group says. "These actions ignore the challenges America's health-care nonprofits face and the good they do in their communities."

April 23, 2010, New York Times — As many as 400,000 nonprofit organizations are weeks away from a doomsday.

At midnight on May 15, an estimated one-fifth to one-quarter of some 1.6 million charities, trade associations and membership groups will lose their tax exemptions, thanks to a provision buried in a 2006 federal bill aimed at pension reform.

“It’s going to be an unholy mess once these organizations realize what’s happened to them,” said Diana Aviv, president of the Independent Sector, a nonprofit trade group.

The federal legislation passed in 2006 required all nonprofits to file tax forms the following year. Previously, only organizations with revenues of $25,000 or more — or the vast majority of nonprofit groups — had to file.

The new law, embedded in the 393 pages of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, also directed the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax exemptions of groups that failed to file for three consecutive years. Three years have passed, and thus the deadline looms.

March 29, 2010, Nonprofit Quarterly — As the entire nation tries to interpret exactly what Congress passed and President Obama signed as the health care reform legislation, we find it interesting that in the past few days, there have been several articles about  “hundreds” waiting in line for free health clinic examinations in Roanoke, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, and Belmar, New Jersey. Both the Belmar and Roanoke clinics were heavily focused on dental care.

Will health insurance reform mean that recent free clinics in these places—plus Houston, New Orleans, and Little Rock—no longer be necessary?  The executive director of the Scotland Community Health Clinic in Laurinburg, North Carolina appears to think that the need for free clinics won’t disappear with the President’s signature on health insurance legislation: "The early talk is that there will still be a long term need for free clinics (because) … (e)ven with vouchers, not everyone will be able to purchase medicines, and some will not qualify for Medicaid. I don't see the need for free clinics going away just yet."

November 17, 2009, The Wall Street Journal — It's crunch time for a tax break that lets people tap their IRAs and give the proceeds to a charity without the Internal Revenue Service claiming part of the money.

November 11, 2009, The New York Times — The latest tax filing for Goldman Sachs’s foundation is as thick as a phone book. The list of trades is more than 200 pages, single spaced. Goldman, it seems, invests like no other, even for its own charity.

NEW YORK, November 10, 2009, The Wall Street Journal — The wealthy and their advisers aren't the only ones riled by the lack of certainty over next year's estate tax. Charities also have a big stake.

NEW YORK, November 4, 2009 — Verizon attorneys and legal staff have started a program that will provide free legal services to needy individuals and nonprofit organizations.

November 6, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — After years of talking about it, Allegheny County Council this week approved a plan to collect fees from tax-exempt entities such as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Highmark, a move expected to raise as much as $13 million annually.

Washington, October 15, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy -- The Internal Revenue Service is not doing enough to make sure that donors of motor vehicles — and the charities that receive the gifts — are following the law so that donors do not take unsubstantiated tax deductions, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

October 13, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday passed health-care legislation that would allow small charities to receive a tax credit to help them provide health insurance to their employees.