Biography
Karen Wolfson serves as the Assistant Vice President, Taxation for the Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) network which is a regional health care delivery system with affiliates located throughout eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The network is comprised of tax-exempt teaching and community hospitals, physician groups and other taxable and non-taxable entities.
In her role Ms. Wolfson is responsible for advising senior management and working with legal counsel on the tax issues related to corporate structuring and operational matters as well as other strategic initiatives. She is also responsible for handling network-wide tax compliance, special projects and other tax matters. She has extensive experience with Form 990, Form 990-T, Form 1023, Form 5500, Form 1065 and associated filings; unrelated business income analysis and reporting; foreign national taxation analysis and reporting; private use of bond financed facilities’ analysis; bond offering tax due diligence; human resources, payroll and benefits tax issues review, analysis and tax compliance; real estate tax issues and other matters.
Ms. Wolfson also has significant experience in educating others on non-profit tax matters. Ms. Wolfson regularly makes presentations to Boards and Board Committees on various non-profit tax matters. Ms. Wolfson has spoken at, served on the planning committee for, and/or served as chair/co-chair for national and regional conferences including the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) Tax Issues for Health Care Organizations Conference, American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) National Not-For-Profit conference and the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) MA/RI Chapter, Regulatory Updates Meeting. She also worked with the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s (MHA) Regulatory Affairs to educate member hospitals on the expanded compliance requirements when the IRS released its overhauled Form 990 and related schedules. She also worked with MHA to educate member hospitals on the requirements of Internal Revenue Code Section 501(r), including similarities and differences with Massachusetts disclosure requirements as well as the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) Compensation Reporting and the similarities and differences with the Form 990 Schedule J reporting requirements.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Wolfson served as the Tax Director for CareGroup / Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and worked in the Tax Department of Coopers & Lybrand’s Boston office.
Ms. Wolfson holds a J.D. from Boston University and a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Wolfson is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and New York. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, American Health Lawyer’s Association, Healthcare Financial Management Association and various other professional organizations.
Ms. Wolfson also serves as a Trustee and Treasurer for the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), Massachusetts and Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters.