BILL REQ. #:  S-0812.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/25/11.   

     AN ACT Relating to providing a property tax exemption for property held under lease, sublease, or lease-purchase by a nonprofit organization that provides job training, placement, or preemployment services; amending RCW 84.36.030; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 84.36.030 and 2006 c 305 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The following real and personal property shall be exempt from taxation:
     (1)(a) Property owned by nonprofit organizations or associations, organized and conducted for nonsectarian purposes, which shall be used for character-building, benevolent, protective or rehabilitative social services directed at persons of all ages.
     (b) The sale of donated merchandise shall not be considered a commercial use of the property under this section if the proceeds are devoted to the furtherance of the purposes of the selling organization or association as specified in this subsection (1).
     (c) In a county with a population of less than twenty thousand, the rental or use of property, owned by a nonprofit organization or association described in (a) of this subsection, by a person, group, or organization in one of the following ways shall not nullify the exemption:
     (i) The property may be rented or used for pecuniary gain or for business activities or by individuals, groups, and organizations for private purposes if the rental or use:
     (A) Does not exceed fifteen days each assessment year;
     (B) No comparable private for-profit facility exists within ten miles of the property that could be used for the same purpose for which the property is loaned or rented; and
     (C) All income from the rental or use of the exempt property is used for capital improvements to the exempt property, maintenance and operation of the exempt property, or for exempt purposes; or
     (ii) The property is rented or used by a nonprofit community group or other nonprofit organization that might not qualify for exemption if it owned the property as long as the rental or use of the property:
     (A) Does not exceed fifteen days each assessment year;
     (B) Does not result in pecuniary gain;
     (C) Does not involve business activities;
     (D) Is always for the general public good; and
     (E) All income from the rental or use of the exempt property is used for capital improvements to the exempt property, maintenance and operation of the exempt property, or for exempt purposes.
     (d) Property primarily used for providing job training, placement, or preemployment services or for supporting job training, placement, or preemployment services through the sale of donated goods as provided in (b) of this subsection (1) and which is leased by an organization or association which otherwise meets the requirements in this subsection (1) and is exempt from federal income taxation under 26 U.S.C. Sec. 501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code. To qualify for the exemption, the lease, sublease, or lease-purchase agreement must expressly require the organization or association which is lessee or sublessee to pay any property taxes for the leased or subleased property.
     (2) Property owned by any nonprofit church, denomination, group of churches, or an organization or association, the membership of which is comprised solely of churches or their qualified representatives, which is utilized as a camp facility if used for organized and supervised recreational activities and church purposes as related to such camp facilities. The exemption provided by this paragraph shall apply to a maximum of two hundred acres of any such camp as selected by the church, including buildings and other improvements thereon.
     (3) Property, including buildings and improvements required for the maintenance and safeguarding of such property, owned by nonprofit organizations or associations engaged in character building of boys and girls under eighteen years of age, and used for such purposes and uses, provided such purposes and uses are for the general public good: PROVIDED, That if existing charters provide that organizations or associations, which would otherwise qualify under the provisions of this paragraph, serve boys and girls up to the age of twenty-one years, then such organizations or associations shall be deemed qualified pursuant to this section.
     (4)(a) Property owned by all organizations and societies of veterans of any war of the United States, recognized as such by the department of defense, which shall have national charters, and which shall have for their general purposes and objects the preservation of the memories and associations incident to their war service and the consecration of the efforts of their members to mutual helpfulness and to patriotic and community service to state and nation. To be exempt such property must be used in such manner as may be reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes and objects of such societies.
     (b) The use of the property for pecuniary gain or for business activities, except as provided in this subsection (4), nullifies the exemption otherwise available for the property for the assessment year. The exemption is not nullified by:
     (i) The collection of rent or donations if the amount is reasonable and does not exceed maintenance and operation expenses.
     (ii) Fund-raising activities conducted by a nonprofit organization.
     (iii) The use of the property for pecuniary gain for periods of not more than fifteen days in a year.
     (c) An inadvertent use of the property in a manner inconsistent with the purpose for which exemption is granted, if the inadvertent use is not part of a pattern of use. A pattern of use is presumed when an inadvertent use is repeated in the same assessment year or in two or more successive assessment years.
     (5) Property owned by all corporations, incorporated under any act of congress, whose principal purposes are to furnish volunteer aid to members of the armed forces of the United States and also to carry on a system of national and international relief and to apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other national calamities and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same.
     (6) Property owned by nonprofit organizations exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code of 1954, as amended, that are guarantee agencies under the federal guaranteed student loan program or that issue debt to provide or acquire student loans.
     (7) To be exempt under this section, the property must be used exclusively for the purposes for which exemption is granted, except as provided in RCW 84.36.805.
     (8) For the purposes of this section, "general public good" means members of the community derive a benefit from the rental or use of the property by the nonprofit community group or organization.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   This act applies to taxes levied for collection in 2012 and thereafter.