Stephens Co. Hospital Gearing Up for Rural Healthcare Tax Credit

Stephens County Hospital is gearing up to help people take advantage of a new tax credit program in 2017.

Georgia is starting the Rural Healthcare Tax Credit this year.

Starting with someone’s 2017 tax liability, an individual or corporation can donate up to a certain amount of money to an eligible rural health care facility and receive a tax credit against their state tax liability.

Stephens County Hospital is one of the facilities in Georgia to whom someone can make this donation and receive the state tax credit.

Hospital Administrator Lynne Anderson said there are two ways people can go about making this donation.

She said one is for the person donating to handle it completely themselves.

“You can go in and create your own Georgia Tax Center account by going on the web and going to the Georgia Department of Revenue,” said Anderson. “You can go in on January 3, go through the process, say you want to donate, and they will take you through it. The Georgia Department of Revenue has 30 days to approve it. It has to have prior approval through them. Then, you have 60 days to make the donation.”

Anderson said the second way is for the person donating to contact the hospital, who will get the process started, though the person donating will at some point have to set up a Tax Center account with the State Department of Revenue to report the donation regardless.

She said that Stephens County Hospital is happy to help people through the process who might be interested.