05/21
On February 6, 2020, the Department issued an assessment to the Taxpayer for gross receipts tax for filing periods from 2013 to 2019. On May 6, 2020, the Taxpayer filed a timely written protest of the assessment. The Taxpayer provides temporary services to clinics and other medical facilities operated by governmental entities through its employees who are nurses. The Taxpayer argued that it was entitled to take the deduction for receipts paid by a managed health care provider. The Department argued that the deduction was not allowed because the sale of the services was to a governmental entity. It also argued that the deduction in question was only for individual healthcare practitioners and could not be allowed for a business entity. In order to be allowed the deduction, the statute states that the receipts must be paid by a managed health care provider or health care insurer, that the receipts are payments for commercial contract services or Medicare part C services, and that the services were performed by a health care practitioner within the scope of their practice. The Hearing Officer determined that the regulation the Department was using to suggest that services sold to the government were not deductible did not apply to this deduction. The Hearing Officer also determined that a regulation states that the deduction may be taken by a business employing the health care practitioners, even if the business is not a healthcare facility. Since the Taxpayer was a legal entity with receipts from managed health care providers for commercial contract services provided by health care practitioners who were employed by the Taxpayer, the receipts were deductible. This having been decided, the Hearing Officer order the assessment abated.