ktxhopem3276 t1_j9flqji wrote on February 21, 2023 at 3:57 PM

Reply to comment by drxdrg08 in Court ruling puts Pottstown Hospital back on the tax rolls by byndrsn

You hit the nail on the head. “Purely public charity” is vague and up to the courts to interpret without clarification from the legislature. My interpretation is they don’t give any profit for shareholders. However people really hate highly paid executives and conflate that with profit distributed to shareholders. One of the judges even said he stretched the truth to get the case appealed bc he has no idea how to interpret the vague law.

drxdrg08 t1_j9g4b8k wrote on February 21, 2023 at 5:57 PM

> 5. Operates entirely free from private profit motive

This criteria is impossible to achieve.

Every single employee that is working at a non-profit and draws a salary (it doesn't have to be a high salary) has a presumed profit motive.

They want their employers to remain solvent, which would mean they continue to receive a paycheck, and/or they want their employer to grow so they can be better compensated or giving them a chance to move up in the hierarchy.

ktxhopem3276 t1_j9gcum9 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 7:05 PM

Money changing hands isn’t always classified as a profit motivation which is receiving money as a result of prior capital contribution to the entity.
The definition of profit doesn’t include an employees salary even though there is a link between them. It gets a little tricky with executive bonuses and how much influence they have at deciding their own compensation but these large non profits have a lot of lawyers to figure that out