Indian Hills Community Church v. County Board of Equalization

412 N.W.2d 459, 226 Neb. 510, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 1022
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 18, 1987
Docket85-896, 85-897
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 412 N.W.2d 459 (Indian Hills Community Church v. County Board of Equalization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indian Hills Community Church v. County Board of Equalization, 412 N.W.2d 459, 226 Neb. 510, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 1022 (Neb. 1987).

Opinion

Shanahan, J.

In separate cases consolidated for appeal, Indian Hills Community Church and Nebraska Conference of the Church of the Brethren (appellants) appeal judgments of the district court for Lancaster County, affirming the Lancaster County Board of Equalization’s actions by which real estate of the appellants was placed on the county tax rolls for 1984 on account of appellants’ failure to file an application for tax exemption in accordance with Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-202.03 (Cum. Supp. 1984). We affirm.

Neb. Const, art. VIII, § 2, provides: “The Legislature by general law may exempt . . . property owned and used exclusively for educational, religious, charitable, or cemetery purposes, when such property is not owned or used for financial gain or profit to either the owner or user.”

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-202(1) (Cum. Supp. 1984) provides:

The following property shall be exempt from taxes:
(c) Property owned by educational, religious, charitable, or cemetery organizations and used exclusively for educational, religious, charitable, or cemetery purposes, when such property is not (i) owned or used for financial gain or profit to either the owner or user, (ii) used *512 for the sale of alcoholic liquors for more than twenty hours per week, or (iii) owned or used by an organization which discriminates in membership or employment based on race, color, or national origin.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-202.01 (Reissue 1981) states:

Any person, corporation, or organization seeking tax exempt status for any real property shall apply for exemption to the county assessor by January 1 of the year following adoption of sections 77-202.01 to 77-202.07, on forms prescribed by the Tax Commissioner. Any person, corporation, or organization seeking tax exempt status for any tangible personal property except motor vehicles shall apply for exemption to the county assessor by January 1, 1970. The county assessor shall examine the application and recommend either taxable or exempt status for the real property or tangible personal property except motor vehicles to the county board of equalization by February 1 following.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-202.03 (Cum. Supp. 1984) states in part:

(1) When real or tangible personal property except motor vehicles has been exempted from taxation as provided by sections 77-202.01 to 77-202.07, it shall continue to be exempt for a period of four years from January 1 of the year following adoption of sections 77-202.01 to 77-202.07; Provided, that each owner of real or tangible personal property except motor vehicles so exempt shall file an affidavit with the county assessor by January 1 of each intervening year certifying that the use of each exempted real or tangible personal property except motor vehicles has not changed during the year. On or before the expiration of such exemption, a new application shall be filed on which the procedure shall be the same as provided for other applications under the provisions of sections 77-202.01 to 77-202.07. If any person, corporation, or organization shall seek a new tax exemption for any real or tangible personal property except motor vehicles in any year, he, she, or it shall apply on or before September 15 of the year of application as *513 provided in section 77-202.01 and procedure thereon shall be the same as provided for other applications under the provisions of sections 77-202.01 to 77-202.07____

(Emphasis supplied.) (We note that § 77-202.01 was amended in 1984 and 1986 and § 77-202.03 was amended in 1986, but such amendments do not affect disposition of the present appeals.)

The parties stipulated facts relative to appellants’ claims for tax-exempt property. Each of the appellants owns real estate in Lancaster County, and each filed an “Exemption Application” for the tax year 1980 pursuant to § 77-202.01, claiming exempt status under § 77-202(l)(c) (religious purposes). Appellants’ property was exempted from taxation in 1980, and such exemption continued in 1981,1982, and 1983, when appellants, as required by § 77-202.03, filed an “Affidavit of Use for Continued Tax Exemption” for each of those years after 1980. Without statutory authority or obligation to do so, in November of 1983 the county assessor’s office mailed to each appellant a form application for exemption of property from taxation in 1984. That form had been completed by the county assessor, except that part of the application pertaining to a description of the property’s use and the signature of the person authorized to sign on behalf of the applicant. Accompanying the exemption application was an explanatory letter from the assessor, reciting the mandatory filing requirement to retain tax-exempt status. Before September 15 in each year prior to 1984, the county sent a second notice to organization-taxpayers which had failed to file an application for exemption, but such practice was discontinued in 1984. Appellants failed to file an exemption application by September 15, 1984, as required by § 77-202.03. On November 19, 1984, the county clerk, on behalf of the board of equalization, mailed a letter to each appellant, informing appellants regarding a prospective hearing before the board concerning requested tax exemptions as well as appellants’ failure to file an application for exemption and the county assessor’s recommendation that appellants’ property be returned to the tax rolls for 1984. At the hearing before the county board of equalization on December 11, 1984, appellants adduced testimony that the 1984 use of *514 appellants’ property was the same as existed in 1980 through 1983, namely, religious purposes. On January 15, 1985, the board of equalization denied tax exemption for each appellant’s property, which was then returned to the tax rolls for 1984. Included in each stipulation is the statement:

[Appellant’s] use of the property in question was the same for the tax year 1984 as it was in the previous years. The [appellant’s] property is property which otherwise would ‘be exempt from taxes’ pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. §77-202(c) [sic] had the proper filings been made to acquire such exemption.

For 1984, the board of equalization returned previously exempt property of three other organizations (Lincoln Hospital Association, Way of Holiness Church, and Kramer Community Cemetery) to the tax rolls because those organizations failed to file an application for tax exemption authorized under § 77-202(l)(c).

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Bluebook (online)
412 N.W.2d 459, 226 Neb. 510, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 1022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indian-hills-community-church-v-county-board-of-equalization-neb-1987.