A revised WAC 458-16-260 – Nonprofit day care centers, libraries, orphanages, homes for sick or inform, hospitals, outpatient dialysis facilities – will take effect at the end of January 2010, clarifying what property owned by a nonprofit hospital is eligible for a tax exemption from Washington state property taxes.
The amended WAC changes the focus of the property tax exemption from whether the property is for in-patient use, to now focusing on whether the property is fully integrated into a licensed hospital unit. The exemption now covers: “all buildings that are currently licensed as part of hospital pursuant to 70.41 or 71.12 RCW and are part of an integrated, interrelated, homogenous unit exclusively used for hospital purposes. The licensed hospital must be able to provide health care services to inpatients over a continuous period of twenty-four hours or more.” Administrative and support facilities, hospital owned employee residences, and temporary residential units used to house families of inpatients are also included in the exemption.
The exemption excludes clinics and physician’s offices that are not licensed as part of the hospital and where patients are not regularly kept as bed patients for 24 hours or more. The amendment also removes the requirement that the property be in use and irrevocably dedicated to the exempt purpose of the nonprofit organization.
