Tax-exempt status of Illinois hospital is revoked

The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the state’s decision to take away the tax-exempt status of Provena Covenant Medical Center, agreeing that the Catholic hospital hadn’t provided enough charity care.

The state argued that Provena had provided free or discounted care to only 302 patients out of 10,000, spending only 0.7 percent of its $113 million in revenues, according to the National Law Journal. (Subscription required.)

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) have joined together to crack down on tax-exempt hospitals that fail to treat patients without insurance, according to The Hill newspaper. Grassley has been a strong proponent of ensuring tax-exempt hospitals provide enough care to low-income and uninsured patients to merit the tax breaks the hospitals get.

IRS Issues Dirty Dozen List of Tax Scams for 2010

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued its “Dirty Dozen” tax scams list for 2010, which includes hiding income offshore and disguising corporate ownership—schemes that whistleblowers often expose.

“IRS agents continue to develop their investigations of these offshore tax avoidance transactions using information gained from over 14,700 voluntary disclosures received last year,” the IRS said in a statement.

The IRS said it is concerned about disguised corporate ownership because “such entities can be used to facilitate underreporting of income, fictitious deductions, non-filing of tax returns, participating in listed transactions, money laundering, financial crimes and even terrorist financing.”