ࡱ> f@ Sbjbjצצ %"9 8  7(("JJR?J"J `J| !]Fj07r,           EMBED MSPhotoEd.3  PO Box 41015 Washington, DC 20018 877-299-6497 November 18, 2005 Internal Revenue Service CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG 111257 - 05) Couriers Desk 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC Dear Sirs: This letter is in response to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) request for public comments on its proposed regulations to establish standards for determining whether a 501 (c) (3) organization should retain its tax exemption in cases involving a private benefit or excess benefit transaction(s). The proposed regulations state that the Commissioner of the IRS will consider all relevant facts and circumstances of a private benefit or excess benefit case to determine if continued tax exemption is warranted, including but not limited to five factors: The size and scope of the organizations operations that further exempt purposes before and after the transaction(s); The size and scope of the transaction(s) in relation to the size and scope of operations furthering exempt purposes; Whether the organization has been involved in repeated excess benefit transactions; Whether the organization has implemented safeguards that can be reasonably expected to prevent future violations; and Whether the transaction has been corrected or the organization has made a good faith effort to seek redress from the disqualified person who benefited from the transaction The proposed regulations indicate that the Commissioner may assign greater or lesser weight to some factors than to others in a particular situation, with the last two factors specified above weighing more heavily in favor of continued exemption where the organization discovers and takes action on the excess benefit transaction(s) before the IRS discovers it. However, the last factor by itself will not be sufficient to continue the exemption. The Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care finds the proposed regulations and examples to be straight forward and appropriate. More specifically, the Alliance believes that the five factors set forth in the proposed regulations are reasonable. There is one important due process issue, however, not addressed in the proposed regulations that needs to be. The Alliance urges that the final regulations state that the IRS will not take any action to remove the organizations tax exemption on excess benefit transaction grounds during a period when the IRS intermediate sanction determination of an excess benefit transaction(s) is itself being contested in court. While this process could in some instances ultimately result in two audits and two trials, to do otherwise could unnecessarily and inappropriately impugn the reputation of the organization, create unnecessary and inappropriate problems for any tax-exempt bonds issued by the organization and for bondholders, and unnecessarily and inappropriately discourage private philanthropic donations as well as public or private grants. The Alliance is a unique blend of nonprofit hospitals, health plans and other health care organizations, all dedicated to preserving and enhancing the abilities of nonprofit healthcare organizations to serve society and their individual communities. Please visit our web site,  HYPERLINK "http://www.nonprofithealthcare.org" www.nonprofithealthcare.org. We appreciate your consideration of our comments, and would be pleased to respond to any questions you may have about our recommendation. Please do not hesitate to contact me should there be any way in which the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care might be of assistance. 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Page Number2>@r2 Title$a$5\S "&;HIJ\]^wOqr23./~  "56789BCDOPT00x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000@0@0@0@0@0@0x@0@00@0@0@0@0@0@0@0@0@0@0008'0000@0@00p'&;HIJ\]^wOqr23./~  "5678T00p00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0$ S 2RS R S:X !!T8@0(  B S  ? 9QTyag 9QT3333GIJ p 89ADNTZkF8 ^`OJQJo(^`.pp^p`.@ @ ^@ `.^`.^`.^`.^`.PP^P`.ZkX           ][6 T@S@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial"h"""4 N4 N"24d""3QH?][)Governors at Odds With Bush Over MedicaidBruce McPhersonBruce McPherson