C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt

[ensho]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/c_street_house_no_longer_tax_exempt.php?ref=fpa


Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.

Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.

Natalie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tax and Revenue for Washington D.C., told TPMmuckraker that her office inspected the house this summer. "It was determined that portions of it were being rented out for private residential purposes," she said. As a result, the tax exempt status was partially revoked. Sixty-six percent of the value of the property is now subject to taxation.

According to online records, the total taxable assessment is $1,834,500. The building's owner last month paid taxes of $1714.70 on the property

-snip-

* This post originally reported, based on online records for the city of Washington, D.C., that C Street is owned by Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an international Christian group, and that YWAM is affiliated with The Family. But YWAM official Ron Boehme told TPMmuckraker that the city's records are inaccurate, and that his group sold the house to The Family in 1989. He also said that YWAM is not affiliated with The Family -- though some reports suggest the two groups have close ties.
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good. now lets get them some more - the creeps need a come down.

[aquart]

1. Pay up or piss off, pissants.

[otohara]

2. Hallelujah

Change I can believe in

[Taverner]

3. I would love to see ALL churches pay property taxes

Why is it that if a business sells a real product, such as a burger, they have to pay property taxes...

Yet if a business (and yes, religion is a business) sells an invisible product, they don't?

[csziggy]

4. That would be real separation of Church and State!

Do other non-profit organizations get exemptions from property taxes? If not, that is special consideration for religious groups, which should not be allowed. If the other groups also get exemptions, then I don't have a problem with all organizations with the same tax classification getting the same privileges.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Yes, other non-profit organizations get exemptions from property taxes:

http://managementhelp.org/tax/np_tax.htm

[csziggy]

16. With an admittedly quick scan I do not see property taxes as on that is exempted

For federally recognized non-profits. I guess it would be state by state, but churches do seem to be universally exempted automatically.

Hmmm, maybe I should get my farm declared a church. I know a couple of ordained ministers and we could work up a scam, oops, religion. :evilgrin:

[TicketyBoo]

17. I know of someone

here who has had his house exempted as a "church."

It's listed that way in the phone book. I don't know whether he deducts his phone bill and utilities as part of his "church's" expense, but I would be surprised if he didn't.

[csziggy]

18. When we bought this place, an acre down near some seepage springs was marked as a church

In the county records. We found foundation pilings and crape myrtles planted around the area, but could find no record of which church it might have been. The farm had been abandoned during the Depression and the parents people we bought it from had gotten it on tax deeds (it was cut into a number of different parcels) so there was no continuous record from the original land grants. We had the designation removed, but I was glad it had saved the black family we purchased from some property taxes over the years. It seems no one bothered to tell them to apply for an agricultural exemption on their pig farm and they paid single family residential taxes on the farm for all the years they owned it.

Anyway, I may think about becoming a church - it would save a boatload of taxes now that we have a real house instead of a mobile home here. I was stunned at how high the taxes are!

[KittyWampus]

6. the amount of wrong in your post is scary.

[Taverner]

7. Aren't you in the wrong forum? Rapture Ready is elsewhere...

[devilgrrl]

9. Your response is even more unsettling.

:scared:

[Taverner]

10. I would have to say so - she doesn't point out any innacuracies

Because, of course, she can't

But just paints "you're wrong" almost like "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL BLASPHEMER!!!"

[Horse with no Name]

5. I don't understand the 60% part

Doesn't make sense.
They don't pro-rate my taxes, why should they pro-rate theirs?

[sinkingfeeling]

15. I think in some areas there would be such a division should one run a business from their home. You

would still be taxed on all of your property, but might have a different rate for the part used as a business. In this case 40% of the property is considered a church.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. K & R

:kick:

[Kingofalldems]

11. Beck and his teabaggers will not like this one

[Orsino]

12. Great. If we're going to allow special interests to buy our representatives directly...

...with perks like reduced rent, at least we're taxing them for the privilege. :eyes:

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Sure hope the $1714 is a monthly charge on a property worth $1.8 million.

[Ocracoker16]

19. Excellent, now how about collecting back taxes

[upi402]

20. a fitting start

now for the damn pseudo-churches that tout Colonel Sanders to the chickens!

[Bobbie Jo]

21. K&R

:kick: