First Baptist Church of Milford, Inc. v. Wilkins

854 N.E.2d 494, 110 Ohio St. 3d 496
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 11, 2006
DocketNo. 2005-1683
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 854 N.E.2d 494 (First Baptist Church of Milford, Inc. v. Wilkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Baptist Church of Milford, Inc. v. Wilkins, 854 N.E.2d 494, 110 Ohio St. 3d 496 (Ohio 2006).

Opinions

Alice Robie Resnick, J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, First Baptist Church of Milford, Inc. (“First Baptist”), is a nonprofit corporation that owns a 67-acre tract of land in Clermont County. A church building, a school, and a print shop are located on the tract. The print shop, the addition attached to it, and the land they occupy are the subject of an application for real property tax exemption filed by First Baptist for tax year 2000 on the basis that they are used exclusively for charitable purposes.

{¶ 2} The print shop is not used by First Baptist. The print shop and its office are used by a separate nonprofit corporation, which originally was known as First Baptist Church Scripture Publishing Ministry, Inc., but has since changed its name to Bearing Precious Seed — Milford, Inc. (“BPS”). The trustees of BPS are the same as those of First Baptist. There are no written agreements between First Baptist and BPS for BPS’s use of the print shop, and BPS does not pay any rent to First Baptist. BPS has its own staff, pays its own employees, and pays the utilities for the print shop. Two apartments attached to the print shop are occupied by persons associated with either First Baptist or BPS.

{¶ 3} BPS uses the print shop to conduct its primary business, which is printing Bibles in numerous languages and distributing them free of charge throughout the world. BPS is financed by gifts and contributions from churches and individuals.

{¶ 4} In addition to its primary business, BPS also conducts a second operation in the print shop under the name JB Printing (“JB”). JB is not a separate legal entity. JB operates within BPS, using the same employees and equipment to do custom printing for churches or persons affiliated with a church. A witness for First Baptist testified before the Board of Tax Appeals (“BTA”), stating, “JB will print a book if somebody would want a book.” BPS also prints Sunday school materials for a separate entity named Master Ministries. Finally, BPS also [497]*497prints school catalogs for Biblical School World of Evangelism. All of these additional printing activities of BPS were accounted for under JB.

{¶ 5} JB pays for its printing activities through sales and contributions. Exhibits produced at the BTA hearing showed that for the year 2000, 2.09 percent of the books printed by BPS were for JB, and the $219,890 of income attributable to JB for that year represented about 12 percent of BPS’s income. BPS’s income attributable to JB was three percent for 2001, 12 percent for 2002, and seven percent for 2003.

{¶ 6} The Tax Commissioner denied First Baptist’s application for exemption under R.C. 5709.12 and 5709.121. The commissioner found R.C. 5709.121 inapplicable because First Baptist was not a charitable, educational, or public entity. In addition, the commissioner found that the activities of JB were not charitable. Finally, the Tax Commissioner denied exemption for the two apartments.

{¶ 7} The BTA affirmed the Tax Commissioner’s final determination.

{¶ 8} This cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right.

{¶ 9} When reviewing decisions of the BTA, this court is not a trier of fact de novo, but is confined by R.C. 5717.04 to determining whether the BTA’s decision is reasonable and lawful. Episcopal Parish of Christ Church, Glendale v. Kinney (1979), 58 Ohio St.2d 199, 201, 12 O.O.3d 197, 389 N.E.2d 847. However, facts determined by the BTA must be supported by sufficient probative evidence. Hawthorn Mellody, Inc. v. Lindley (1981), 65 Ohio St.2d 47, 19 O.O.3d 234, 417 N.E.2d 1257, syllabus.

{¶ 10} The party claiming an exemption bears the burden of demonstrating that the property qualifies for exemption. OCLC Online Computer Library Ctr., Inc. v. Kinney (1984), 11 Ohio St.3d 198, 201, 11 OBR 509, 464 N.E.2d 572. Laws that exempt property from taxation must receive a strict construction because such laws are in derogation of equal rights. Cincinnati College v. State (1850), 19 Ohio 110, 115. In White Cross Hosp. Assn. v. Bd. of Tax Appeals (1974), 38 Ohio St.2d 199, 201, 67 O.O.2d 224, 311 N.E.2d 862, the court stated that when an exemption is granted by the General Assembly, “[t]he rationale justifying a tax exemption is that there is a present benefit to the general public from the operation of the charitable institution sufficient to justify the loss of tax revenue.”

{¶ 11} In its application for real property tax exemption, First Baptist claimed exemption for the print shop and apartments under R.C. 5709.12 and 5709.121. However, in its appeal to this court, First Baptist has abandoned any claim that R.C. 5709.121 applies and relies solely on R.C. 5709.12(B) for its claim of exemption. R.C. 5709.12(B) provides: “Real and tangible personal property belonging to institutions that is used exclusively for charitable purposes shall be [498]*498exempt from taxation.” The question in this case is whether the property at issue is used exclusively for charitable purposes.

{¶ 12} In Zangerle v. State ex rel. Gallagher (1929), 120 Ohio St. 139, 165 N.E. 709, an action was brought to restrain the county auditor from removing certain property from the tax duplicate that had been exempted by the tax commission under G.C. 5353 (now R.C. 5709.12). In a concurring opinion, written by Justice Day and joined by two other justices, Justice Day stated his opinion that “by the provisions of [G.C. 5353] and of the Constitution, ownership and use for charitable purposes must coincide.” Id. at 145, 165 N.E. 709 (Day, J., concurring). The court took that same position in Lincoln Mem. Hosp., Inc. v. Warren (1968), 13 Ohio St.2d 109, 42 O.O.2d 327, 235 N.E.2d 129, in which the owner of the property, a for-profit corporation, had leased a hospital to a separate nonprofit corporation. Exemption was sought under R.C. 5709.12. The court upheld the BTA’s denial of an exemption for the property, finding that the use the owner of the property made of the property was in the nature of a rental arrangement to another and not a use by it exclusively for charitable purposes. In its opinion in Lincoln Mem. Hosp. denying the exemption, the court cited Zangerle and stated: “[I]t is apparent that the then members of this court were agreed that to exempt real property from taxation on the ground that it is used exclusively for charitable purposes the ownership of the property and its use must coincide.” Id. at 110, 42 O.O.2d 327, 235 N.E.2d 129.

{¶ 13} To fully understand why the ownership and use must coincide for exemption under R.C. 5709.12, we must consider the relationship between R.C. 5709.12 and 5709.121. Soon after the court decided Lincoln Mem. Hosp., the General Assembly passed Am.Sub.H.B. No. 817, 133 Ohio Laws, Part III, 2646, which enacted R.C. 5709.121. The title of Am.Sub.H.B. No.

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Bluebook (online)
854 N.E.2d 494, 110 Ohio St. 3d 496, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-baptist-church-of-milford-inc-v-wilkins-ohio-2006.