Sacramento Tax Lawyer for Hospitals

Many hospitals historically held positions as charitable institutions, which gave them many legal breaks and tax breaks. As the hospital industry has grown into a booming business, it is important for hospitals to follow all applicable tax protocols. Especially for smaller health clinics and private hospitals that do not have in-house counsel, discussing your tax situation with an experienced tax attorney may help save money and avoid problems come tax time.

The tax lawyers at the NewPoint Law Group, LLP, represent hospitals and other businesses in their tax needs. Hiring a tax attorney can provide a number of services for your business. For a free consultation with our Sacramento hospital tax attorneys, contact our law offices today at 800-358-0305.

Tax Attorneys for Hospitals and Emergicenters

Many hospitals that provided a “community benefit” have been able to gain tax-exempt status. Along with changes from the Affordable Care Act and rulings from the past few years from the U.S. Tax Court have called into question hospitals’ abilities to claim tax exemption. In many cases, hospitals are being asked to quantify the exact benefits their hospital makes to the community, and only with these numbers in place can they request tax exemption up to the value of those contributions.

Even if this exemption is unavailable, your hospital may still be entitled to other exemptions and deductions. Like any business, a hospital may be able to gather tax breaks by following certain hiring practices, energy efficiency thresholds, or other tax incentives. Some of these may only apply to state or federal taxes, but may not cover both.

Hiring a tax attorney can help alleviate the burden on your staff. Many hospital administrators may be trained in staffing and management decisions, but they may not have the experience necessary to deal with taxes. Even accounting teams may not have the training needed to file your taxes or search for tax breaks. Tax attorneys have training and experience dealing with the tax code specifically, and may be able to apply that talent to your tax situation.

Audit Defense for Hospitals in California

Hospitals are vulnerable to tax audits just like any other company. If the IRS finds potential errors or discrepancies in your tax forms, your hospital may become the target of an IRS tax audit. An audit does not automatically mean that you have done anything wrong or that your business will be facing additional tax penalties – but it may lead to that.

Audits are triggered for various reasons. First, some audits are random. The IRS uses algorithms to detect taxes that deviate from the “norm,” but just because your hospital took many deductions or exemptions does not mean they were wrong, and the audit may return no errors. Second, you may face an audit if business partners or investors are being audited. This means that if members of your hospital’s board of trustees or its investors are facing their own financial issues, your hospital may be closely scrutinized to make sure it is not involved in any issues.

Audit defense involves handing over information to the IRS and being able to defend prior tax decisions. Our lawyers can help defend your past deductions and exemptions. If the IRS does find errors, we may be able to negotiate payments for back taxes to help cut down the costs and tax penalties for your hospital.

California State and Local Taxes

Taxes for the federal government are not the only taxes that hospitals need to pay. State and local governments also tax businesses and individuals within their borders. Often, California’s tax code is different than the US tax code. This may mean you are required to pay vastly different tax amounts to the State and may not be able to claim deductions in the same way you can with the IRS.

Our hospital taxation attorneys are available to work with your accounting departments, administrators, and board of trustees to ensure that all taxes are filed with the correct governments and in their full amounts. We can also look for applicable state and local deductions available that specifically help hospitals to help lower your overall tax burden.

Sacramento Hospital and Health Clinic Tax Lawyers

Especially for smaller hospital networks, private clinics, and other healthcare facilities, hiring in-house counsel to manage tax issues may be beyond your reach. While accounting departments may be able to handle some tax issues, they may not have the legal training and knowledge of the tax code that a tax attorney has. In addition, an attorney can represent your hospital in court.

For a free consultation with our Sacramento hospital and business tax lawyers, contact the NewPoint Law Group, LLP, today. Our attorneys are available for free consultations on new tax cases. For your free consultation, call 800-358-0305 today or reach out online.