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Christopher J. Swift

Chris Swift is a healthcare and tax lawyer who counsels the healthcare industry and other businesses by guiding them through governmental, tax and regulatory issues. He keeps non-profit organizations tax-exempt, assists all taxpayers in reducing state and local taxes and finds tax and regulatory incentives to grow companies.

Relevant Experience

Hospitals
In the healthcare area, Chris has represented a number of tax-exempt hospitals in many types of transactions, inclusive of mergers and affiliations between tax-exempt organizations, sale of assets to investor-owned corporations and joint ventures with investor-owned corporations. With over thirty years of experience, Chris works with the financial team to find practical solutions to problems and tax savings opportunities. He has also represented many “conversion” foundations that have resulted from sale of tax-exempt hospitals.

For-Profit Healthcare
Chris has advised a number of for-profit healthcare clients, including several large faculty practice plans and professional corporations. In addition, he has assisted in the planning and formation stages of many joint ventures in the healthcare area, ranging from medical office buildings to ambulatory surgery centers.

Tax-Exempt Organizations
Chris has extensive experience in the tax-exempt organization area—particularly with hospitals and hospital affiliates. He has handled IRS exemption applications for a number of hospitals and hospital subsidiaries and has represented several large hospital systems during IRS audits. He also has experience with private inurement/private benefit, Medicare fraud and abuse and Stark I and II issues.

State and Local Tax Issues
In the state and local tax area, Chris has assisted many large companies with multistate operations in structuring their corporate organizations to minimize state and local taxes. He also handles the state and local tax issues in connection with acquisitions or dispositions of businesses.

In addition to state and local tax planning and transactional work, Chris assists clients at the audit level before the Ohio Department of Taxation. For more than thirty years, he has litigated numerous tax issues before the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals, Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court.

Real Property Tax Abatement Issues
Chris has extensive experience in the area of real property tax abatement. Projects have included obtaining tax abatement from property taxes or tax increment financing for a number of significant Ohio construction projects. He also handles real property tax exemptions for charitable organizations.

Professional Experience

Chris currently serves both as a National Co-Leader of the firm’s Healthcare Industry Team and as Coordinator of the Cleveland office’s Tax, Personal Planning and Employee Benefits Group. Her served as a member of the firm’s Policy Committee from 2004 through 2009.

Chris has lectured on state and local taxes to several organizations, including the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Columbus Bar Association and the Committee on State Taxation. In 1988, he was the Chair of the Cleveland Bar Association’s State and Local Tax Institute. In 1990-91, he served as Chair of the Cleveland Bar Association’s General Tax Committee. Chris has also served as Chair of the 2008 Cleveland Tax Institute and the CMBA’s 1998 Health Law Institute.

Chris is a member of the American, Ohio and Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associations, as well as the American Health Lawyers Association. Since 1997, Chris has been listed annually in the Best Lawyers in America. He was named by Best Lawyers as “2010 Cleveland Tax Lawyer of the Year” and “2011 Cleveland Health Care Lawyer of the Year.” Both honors are bestowed upon only one lawyer per specialty in each community. Chris has been named an “Ohio Super Lawyer” for the past ten years.