04/09
On May 24, 2019, the Department assessed the taxpayer $23,017.64 in gross receipts tax, penalty and interest. On May 29, 2019, the Taxpayer’s formal protest was received by the Department. The Taxpayer is a psychiatrist who provided services to behavioral health organizations while being placed by a third-party physician staffing agency which compensated him. The Taxpayer was not an employee of the staffing agency. The Taxpayer argued that the receipts he received from the staffing agency from providing services as a healthcare practitioner were deductible. A deduction from gross receipts is provided for commercial contract services or Medicare part C services paid by a managed healthcare provider or healthcare insurer. The Taxpayer, however, was paid by the staffing agency, which was not a healthcare provider or healthcare insurer. Also, the evidence did not identify whether the services the Taxpayer provided were within the scope of Taxpayer’s practice, or identify the specific source of the funds, which would be required in order to support the deduction. The Taxpayer argued that some of the services would not be taxable through the deduction for the payment of healthcare services by the federal government for certain programs, but here again was unable to provide evidence that specified the receipts were from these types of programs. Because the evidence did not show support for either deduction, and because the Taxpayer was unable to support through evidence any of his other arguments, the Hearing Officer ordered the protest denied.