Georgia May Force Health-Care Groups to Pay Sales Taxes

Georgia health-care groups are urging Gov. Sonny Perdue to veto a bill that would end an exemption from sales taxes for nonprofit health-care organizations, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Currently, nonprofit hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices do not pay sales or other taxes on their purchases, but a measure passed by the General Assembly could require them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in new taxes.

The bill was designed to expand the exemption from sales taxes to nonprofit clinics that care for people who lack health-care insurance. Lawmakers wanted that break to be temporary but in so doing, they drafted a measure that caused all the sales-tax exemptions for health-care groups to expire in 2008.

Some key lawmakers said they did not intend to change the sales-tax rules for all health-care groups. Governor Perdue has not decided whether to sign the measure.