IRS Investigates Calif. Hospital Charity’s Nonprofit Status
January 27, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the tax status of a foundation that raises money for a Northern California hospital, much of it through a charity dinner popular with members of the region’s business and political elite, the Willows Journal and the Chico Enterprise-Record write.
The board of the Glenn Medical Foundation, founded in 2005 to support the Glenn Medical Center in Willows, voted Tuesday to pay back taxes and take steps to assist donors who may have improperly taken deductions on gifts to the group.
Rick Thomas, the board’s president, said a recently discovered paperwork error triggered doubts about the foundation’s supposed nonprofit status but that there was no intentional wrongdoing. “It appears there were efforts to [become a nonprofit], but somewhere along the line that just didn’t happen,” he said.
The foundation is the focus of the area’s biggest annual charity event, a black-tie dinner hosted by the well-known West Coast car dealer Cal Worthington.
