04/27
On June 17, 2020, the Department assessed the Taxpayer for gross receipts tax, penalty and interest. On June 26, 2020, the Taxpayer’s protest of the assessment was received by the Department. The Taxpayer’s spouse, a registered nurse, worked as a contractor providing nursing services for a business that provided healthcare services. The Taxpayer argued that the spouse qualified for the deduction from gross receipts of a health care practitioner for commercial contract services or Medicare part C services paid by a managed health care provider or healthcare insurer. In order for the deduction to be taken, the receipts must be derived from payments received pursuant to a contract between a healthcare practitioner and a managed healthcare provider or insurer. However, the Taxpayer was unable to support that the business that the spouse worked for qualified, nor could the Taxpayer provide evidence the spouse was being paid for commercial contract services or Medicare part C services. The Taxpayer also argued that the deduction for payments received by the United States government or its agencies for healthcare services would qualify, but here again the payment was received directly from the business providing the healthcare services and not from an agency of the federal government. The source of the business’s own funds, the Hearing Officer found, was not relevant to the application of the deduction. But though the evidence did not support that either deduction could be taken, the Hearing Officer determined that the Taxpayer had made a mistake of law in good faith and on reasonable grounds, and so ordered that the penalty be abated while ordering that the gross receipts tax be paid.