The Law of Tax-Exempt Healthcare Organizations 2017 Cumulative Supplement, Fourth Edition + website

Preface

This cumulative supplement accompanying the fourth edition of The Law of Tax‐Exempt Healthcare Organizations focuses on developments in the law in the tax‐exempt healthcare field since the book was published and through 2016. As in recent years, 2016 was a year of evolutionary regulatory development and guidance, rather than revolutionary.

The IRS continues to attempt to regulate the nonprofit tax‐exempt sector during a time when it has fallen into disfavor with the majority party in Congress, and perhaps with the incoming officials of the executive branch. It has sustained substantial reductions in budget and staff while being responsible for carrying the same load. Even the IRS Commissioner has been threatened with impeachment.

One fallout of this has been a marked decline in the issuance of substantive guidance in the form of revenue rulings, general counsel memoranda, private letter rulings, and even continuing professional education (CPE) text articles that have been the subject of much of the analysis provided in this text. Still, the IRS continues with useful and user‐friendly educational efforts in its online offerings and it has reduced processing time for applications for recognition of exemption to about a third of the time that was once required.

As chronicled in this supplement, the IRS this year helpfully provided more flexible guidance on the terms of permissible management services agreements with healthcare facilities financed with tax‐exempt bonds and ...