UPMC alleges it has no employees for tax purposes

Many people in injured in Workplace Accidents in the local area treat at UPMC. UPMC  in a recent hearing regarding their tax-exempt status indicated that they do no officially have any employees.

UPMC has explained through their lawyers in Common Pleas Court in font of Judge R. Stanton Wettick that for the purposes of Pittsburgh's annual wage tax, all of UPMC's thirty-seven subsidiaries each file separate forms. Since, as was explained, that all employees work for a separate subsidiary, UPMC has does not technically hire anyone, but encompasses all of its holings under the "UPMC" title for advertising and marketing purposes.

Judge Wettick ended the initial hearing directing that the court could not proceed until the UPMC employee issue is uniformly addressed or an amendment of the complaint is issued as a precursor for an argument from the city of Pittsburgh that can prove otherwise. Judge Wettick stated "...if UPMC has no employees, there's nothing more I can do."

However, UPMC's website's "Facts" page indicates that "UPMC is Pennsylvania's largest employer with more than 55,000 employees." Yet UPMC maintains that this is simply a marketing strategy that many other major business conglomerates have used in the past and are currently using. A UPMC spokesperson said that if the city of Pittsburgh wants to continue to challenger UPMC's tax-exempt status then they will have to do so on a "subsidiary by subsidiary basis."

An attorney for the city of Pittsburgh said that they are "going to amend the complaint to address Judge Wettick's concerns and we're confident that we can do that based on UPMC's. pronouncements that they have [more than 55,000] employees. The attorney thinks that UPMC's marketing strategy can be used against them.

The city of Pittsburgh is scheduled to file an amended complaint in about a week. The medical center will have a week to respond.

Also when UPMC made its way into U.S News & World Report's Best Hospitals list it reported that "UPMC" was a conglomeration of many separate facilities throughout the state not that it is just a tag used for nearly 40 different subsidiaries.

Source: Becker's Hospital Review, "UPMC claims it has no Employees to Keep Tax-Exempt status" (22 October 2013).



Think you have a workers’ compensation case?

Contact us

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
One of our attorneys will review your case within 24 hours and we will reach out with the next steps