Bay 12 Games Forum

*fistshake*

I'm intending to just hold on to Eets until the next giveaway that pops up, m'self. You (and shadow, if he wants) are welcome to hijack the thread for some extended giveaway action, though

Ahh, the irresistable draw of book collecting. Why else would I, an agnostic, be lusting after this complete, eight-volume, possibly leather-bound bilingual edition of the Summa Theologica? My friends, I have no answers.

... because it's an incredibly influential work that has massively influenced Western thought, and despite its religious base includes a fair amount of solid philosophy? From what I recall, despite it getting pretty out there with the metaphysics and whatnot, it's a interesting read. Definitely on the list of religiously motivated works that the non-religious would not be harmed, so to speak, by being familiar with.

... plus, iirc, it's just a nice read. Aquinas was a surprisingly good writer, if I'm not confusing him with Augustine. Pretty sure I'm not. I think I actually enjoyed doing some papers on either the Theologica or contra Gentiles.

Essentially, non-profit/charity hospitals either have to go for-profit or comply with assessments of community needs.

Yeah... I'm relatively certain (if not 100%) that they could just stay non-profit and just... pay taxes on taxable income. Might technically be a not-for-profit or something (iirc, there's a difference, though I don't recall what), but... yeah. Could also just go for-profit and do charity anyway. Businesses can do that. Tend to already, up the maximum (if feasible) extent it counts as a tax deduction

And to clarify, taxable income for businesses (non-profit or otherwise) is almost always revenue minus deductions, which tends to include most or all of operating expenses (at the least). So, it generally is profit (revenue minus expenses, simple as that) that gets taxed, minus other potential deductions. For the change to effect the hospitals at all, they couldn't be running a deficit or just covering expenses, which... would mean they'd be fine if they paid taxes on the profit. Less expansion capability, perhaps, but I'd say that's alright, m'self.

As for some of the "non-profit" hospitals no longer being able to call themselves that, well... the ones the change would seem to be effecting frankly seem to already be for-profit, just taking advantage of an administrative trick to avoid taxation. Could do without that, m'self.

General point being that while we might see a reduction in medical organizations legally qualifying as non-profit, if we see a reduction in medical charity because of it then it's pretty likely the ones we lose weren't in it for the charity to begin with. Might be able to do more good getting taxes from those ones.

The mention of a "fine" took me some digging to find what they were actually talking about, but it seems to be general IRS fines for not complying to 501(c) standards (which could also result in shutting them down) and an additional $50,000 fine for failing to comply with standards regarding the community needs assessments.

Though I have to admit, this one amuses me a bit. Blaming the ACA for the organizations being hit by the IRS for evidently lying on their taxes (some of them before the ACA came into effect) is kinda' hilarious

ACA could fine or shut down non-profit/charity hospitals (~60% of total hospitals in the US). Thanks, Obama.

... could you, like, quote or something from the article where it actually says that? The only thing the article notes is that the increase in insurance coverage may make current non-profits* have a harder time maintaining tax exempt status. Which. Just means they're no longer tax exempt, and perhaps no longer qualifying as charity. That doesn't mean they would stop being nonprofit, or have to shut down. Just that they'd no longer qualify as charity organizations.

Which means, more or less, that any taxable income they make (which is generally after expense deductions! It wouldn't be cutting into the amount they need to maintain operations, and only partially into what they'd use to expand them.) would start being taxed. That... if that forces a shutdown, that hospital probably didn't need to be running anyway, t'be honest.

I'm not seeing the problem. Or what you stated as possibly happening.

* And note that what it takes to qualify as a charity hospital is honestly kinda' disgusting, if that article is accurate. Seriously, <5% of your operating expenses sunk into charity to skirt taxation?

... what?

Genetic thingy might be kinda' interesting, sure. It'd be neat to see if there's more than three continents worth of blood in the family, heh. We're fairly certain there's at least that many~

... not much more than kinda', though. I find it hard to really care about ancestry when th'family's such bloody mutts.

Yeah... piranha gun wrecks the EoW, mostly. Especially if you get it in a more open area... from what I remember the fish'll break off if it hits a wall, but so long as that doesn't happen it'll happily chomp straight through the EoW without blinking.

... english is definitely an outright arsehole. A drunken arsehole.

It's kinda' like someone took the degree of alcoholic libation needed to pick other languages word gender thingies and applied it to an entire bloody language. And I know enough of french, just as an example, to know the people that assigned gender were absolutely shitfaced.