HCA to pay $15M in property taxes in North Carolina after Mission Health deal

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare will pay an estimated $15 million in property taxes to North Carolina governments following its purchase of Mission Health, a six-hospital system based in Asheville, N.C., the Citizen-Times reports.

The $1.5 billion purchase closed Feb. 1, five months after HCA and Mission signed a definitive agreement.

HCA will begin paying property taxes to Buncombe County and Asheville retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year, according to the report. Mission Health previously was exempt from paying taxes on property in western North Carolina due to its nonprofit status, but that exemption no longer applies given the sale to major for-profit hospital operator HCA.

"HCA will be made owner for tax purposes as of Jan. 1 of this year and will be responsible for the taxes for the entire year," Buncombe County Tax Assessor Keith Miller told the Citizen-Times. "They will get a tax bill come August when we send out notices and will be handled just like any other taxpayer at this point."

On its website, Family-Friendly Affordable Buncombe, an initiative created in response to the Mission transaction, calls for investing the new property tax revenue from the sale in early childhood education, attainable family housing and better public transit.

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