Connecticut 2021 2021 Regular Session

Connecticut House Bill HB06103 Introduced / Bill

Filed 01/27/2021

                        
 
 
LCO No. 2652  	1 of 4 
 
General Assembly  Raised Bill No. 6103  
January Session, 2021 
LCO No. 2652 
 
 
Referred to Committee on PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT  
 
 
Introduced by:  
(PD)  
 
 
 
 
AN ACT CONCERNING PR OPERTY TAX EXEMPTION S FOR 
PROPERTY USED FOR CH ARITABLE PURPOSES. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General 
Assembly convened: 
 
Section 1. Subdivision (7) of section 12-81 of the general statutes is 1 
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 2 
1, 2021, and applicable to assessment years commencing on or after October 1, 3 
2021): 4 
(7) (A) Subject to the provisions of sections 12-87 and 12-88, the real 5 
property of, or held in trust for, a corporation organized exclusively for 6 
scientific, educational, literary, historical or charitable purposes or for 7 
two or more such purposes and used exclusively for carrying out one or 8 
more of such purposes or for the purpose of preserving open space land, 9 
as defined in section 12-107b, for any of the uses specified in said section, 10 
that is owned by any such corporation, and the personal property of, or 11 
held in trust for, any such corporation, provided (i) any officer, member 12 
or employee thereof does not receive or at any future time shall not 13 
receive any pecuniary profit from the operations thereof, except 14 
reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of such 15  Raised Bill No.  6103 
 
 
 
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purposes or as proper beneficiary of its strictly charitable purposes, and 16 
(ii) in 1965, and quadrennially thereafter, a statement shall be filed on or 17 
before [the first day of] November first with the assessor or board of 18 
assessors of any town, consolidated town and city or consolidated town 19 
and borough, in which any of its property claimed to be exempt is 20 
situated. Such statement shall be filed on a form provided by such 21 
assessor or board of assessors. Such form shall be posted on the Internet 22 
web site of such assessor or board of assessors, if applicable. The real 23 
property shall be eligible for the exemption regardless of whether it is 24 
used by another corporation organized exclusively for scientific, 25 
educational, literary, historical or charitable purposes or for two or more 26 
such purposes; 27 
(B) On and after [July 1, 1967] October 1, 2021, housing subsidized, in 28 
whole or in part, by federal, state or local government and housing for 29 
persons or families of low and moderate income shall not constitute a 30 
charitable purpose under this section. As used in this subdivision, 31 
"housing" shall not include real property used for [temporary] housing 32 
belonging to, or held in trust for, any corporation organized exclusively 33 
for charitable purposes and exempt from taxation for federal income tax 34 
purposes, the primary use of which property is one or more of the 35 
following: (i) An orphanage; (ii) a drug or alcohol treatment or 36 
rehabilitation facility; (iii) housing for persons who are homeless, 37 
persons with a mental health disorder, persons with intellectual or 38 
physical disability or victims of domestic violence; (iv) housing for ex-39 
offenders or for individuals participating in a program sponsored by the 40 
state Department of Correction or Judicial Branch; [and] or (v) short-41 
term housing operated by a charitable organization where the average 42 
length of stay is less than six months. The operation of such housing, 43 
including the receipt of any rental payments, by such charitable 44 
organization shall be deemed to be an exclusively charitable purpose. 45 
For the purposes of this subdivision, payments made by federal, state or 46 
local government for the treatment, support or care of individuals 47 
housed in the real property described in subparagraphs (B)(i) to (B)(v), 48 
inclusive, of this subdivision shall not constitute housing subsidies; 49  Raised Bill No.  6103 
 
 
 
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Sec. 2. Section 12-89 of the general statutes is repealed and the 50 
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2021, and 51 
applicable to assessment years commencing on or after October 1, 2021): 52 
The board of assessors of each town, consolidated town and city or 53 
consolidated town and borough shall inspect the statements filed with 54 
it [and required by] pursuant to sections 12-81, as amended by this act, 55 
and 12-87 from scientific, educational, literary, historical, charitable, 56 
agricultural and cemetery organizations, and shall determine what part, 57 
if any, of the property claimed to be exempt by the organization [shall 58 
be] is in fact exempt. [and] The board of assessors shall place a valuation 59 
upon [all] any such property [, if any, as is] found to be taxable. [, 60 
provided any] Any property acquired by any tax-exempt organization 61 
after [the first day of] October first shall first become exempt on the 62 
assessment date next succeeding the date of acquisition. In determining 63 
what part, if any, of a property claimed to be exempt is in fact exempt, 64 
the board of assessors shall consider whether the property is owned or 65 
held in trust for a corporation organized exclusively for charitable 66 
purposes and exempt from taxation for federal income tax purposes. If 67 
the board of assessors determines that property claimed to be exempt is 68 
taxable, the board of assessors shall state upon its records the rationale 69 
for such determination. Any organization filing a tax-exempt statement, 70 
aggrieved at the action of the assessor or board of assessors, may appeal, 71 
within the time prescribed by law for such appeals, to the board of 72 
assessment appeals. Any such organization claiming to be aggrieved by 73 
the action of the board of assessment appeals may, within two months 74 
from the time of such action, make application in the nature of an appeal 75 
therefrom to the superior court for the judicial district in which such 76 
property is situated.  77 
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following 
sections: 
 
Section 1 October 1, 2021, and 
applicable to assessment 
years commencing on or 
after October 1, 2021 
12-81(7)  Raised Bill No.  6103 
 
 
 
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Sec. 2 October 1, 2021, and 
applicable to assessment 
years commencing on or 
after October 1, 2021 
12-89 
 
Statement of Purpose:   
To require assessors and boards of assessors to post certain property tax 
exemption statement forms on such assessors' and boards' Internet web 
sites, specify that payments made by federal, state or local governments 
for the treatment, support or care of certain individuals shall not 
constitute housing subsidies for the purposes of determining what is a 
charitable purpose and require boards of assessors to consider whether 
certain property claimed to be exempt is owned or held in trust by 
federal tax-exempt charitable organizations. 
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except 
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not 
underlined.]