Robert Torricelli: “yesterday I engaged in a colloquy with Senators Kohl and Moseley-Braun regarding the intent of report language in S.…”

“yesterday I engaged in a colloquy with Senators Kohl and Moseley-Braun regarding the intent of report language in S. 2312 concerning tax standards for tax-exempt health clubs. In that colloquy, I stated that my expectation was that the report would ``focus on adult fitness provided by tax-exempt organizations that serve only adults.'' However, both tax-exempt health clubs and for-profit health clubs serve entire families including young adults and children. While I believe the report should focus on adult fitness provided by tax-exempt organizations, tax-exempt organizations also offer non-adult service. The fact that they offer service to non-adults does not qualify an entity for tax-exempt status. Therefore, to eliminate any entity that provides any level of services to non-adults would greatly restrict the usefulness of this report in providing guidance to Congress. Again, I want to emphasize that my intent here is only for the IRS to provide Congress guidance in this area.”