International Schools Services, Inc. v. West Windsor Township

21 A.3d 1166, 207 N.J. 3, 2011 N.J. LEXIS 696
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedJuly 6, 2011
DocketA-114-09
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 21 A.3d 1166 (International Schools Services, Inc. v. West Windsor Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
International Schools Services, Inc. v. West Windsor Township, 21 A.3d 1166, 207 N.J. 3, 2011 N.J. LEXIS 696 (N.J. 2011).

Opinions

Justice LaVECCHIA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this local property tax appeal, we review a judgment that denied International Schools Services, Inc. (ISS) a tax exemption under N.J.S.A 54:4-3.6. ISS challenged the 2002 and 2003 property tax assessments imposed on its office condominium units in West Windsor Township (Township), claiming it was entitled to exemption for property actually used in the work of a nonprofit corporation “organized exclusively for the moral and mental improvement of men, women and children.” N.J.S.A 54:4-3.6. For many years prior, the portion of the property owned and occupied by ISS had been exempted from local property taxation on that basis; ISS had not claimed an exemption for those portions that it did not occupy and that were dedicated to the operations of its related for-profit affiliates. However, in tax years 2002 and 2003, based on a review of ISS’s recent activities, the Township denied the exemption for the ISS-occupied property.

ISS appealed, first to the Tax Court and thereafter to the Appellate Division. Both courts applied the statutory test for determining whether buildings used by associations and corporations organized for the moral and mental improvement of men, women and children are entitled to exemption from taxation, as that test has been explicated in Paper Mill Playhouse v. Millburn Township, 95 N.J. 503, 472 A.2d 517 (1984). Although their reasoning was not perfectly aligned, both courts reached a common determination: ISS had conducted itself in a manner that entangled its activities and operations on its property with the advancement of for-profit activities of other related and unrelated for-profit entities. That commingling of effort and entanglement of activities and operations by ISS and its for-profit affiliates was [6]*6found to be significant and it all flowed to the benefit of the for-profit entities. Thus, both courts concluded that because ISS allowed its property to be used for profit, it was not eligible for exemption during the tax years in issue.

In this appeal ISS claims that the judgment of the Appellate Division is in error for holding that its owned and occupied real property was not entitled to exempt status. It also requests clarification of the statutory test’s application in these circumstances.

We granted ISS’s petition for certification, International Schools Services, Inc. v. West Windsor Township, 203 N.J. 96, 999 A.2d 464 (2010), as much to settle the analysis that pertains in these circumstances as to review the holding against ISS. We now affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division.

I.

A.

The following description of the property and activities of ISS is drawn from the full and detailed record developed by the Tax Court in this matter.

The property whose status is the subject-matter of this appeal (Property) is located at 15 Roszel Road in West Windsor Township. ISS has owned and operated the Property, consisting of four office condominium units, since 1989, and has located its own central office at the Property since that time. During the years at issue, ISS employed approximately fifty people in its central office. It also leased portions of the space available at the Property to other organizations, including two organizations with which it was affiliated. For each year from 1990 through 2001, the Township granted ISS a property tax exemption, pursuant to N.J.S.A 54:4-3.6, for the portions of the Property actually occupied by ISS. ISS paid property tax on those portions of the Property which were vacant or were leased to other tenants. On October 6, 2003, the [7]*7Township revoked ISS’s property tax exemption for the tax years 2002 and 2003 and ISS filed suit.

B.

ISS is organized as a nonprofit corporation and maintains a tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code. See 26 U.S.C.A § 501(c)(3). It was founded in 1955 by Arthur Sweetser, whose goal was to ensure that American children living overseas received a quality, American-style education.

Its Certificate of Incorporation explains in detail the purposes for which the company was organized:

The purpose or purposes which the Corporation will hereafter pursue are: (1) to aid, promote and encourage, by all appropriate means, including gifts of money or other property, or by other means schools, facilities, and other organizations that are exclusively educational in character, (2) to foster the provision of education by the payment of salaries, fellowships and grants to teachers and instructors, and (3) to devote all or a part of the income and any or all of the principal of any property, real or personal, to the furtherance and support of projects and institutions that are exclusively educational; provided, however, that no part of the net earnings of such schools, facilities, projects, institutions and other organizations inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, and provided, farther, (a) that no substantial part of the activities of such organizations is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation, and (b) that such organizations do not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.

The ISS website, as of June 11, 2008, also set out a general purpose statement for the organization:

The mission of [ISS] is to advance the quality of education for children in international schools by providing innovative sendees and solutions for learning communities and corporations throughout the world. This is accomplished by working with all groups that are involved in the education process.

As of 2002 and 2003, ISS served approximately 800 schools in as many as 185 countries around the world. Each school sought to provide an American-style education, with classes conducted in English. ISS assisted the institutions by selecting qualified American teachers and superintendents to serve as staff; procuring school supplies; providing the management operations necessary to the functioning of a typical American school; providing [8]*8financial management services; and making grants to individuals and schools to promote educational curricula. Cumulatively, the services encompassed the broad functions, both educational and administrative, performed by a local board of education. In addition to serving independent schools, ISS also had begun to own and manage its own international schools.

ISS provided the enumerated services based on the particular needs of the individual schools it was assisting. Its decisions were made irrespective of whether its engagement would result in net earnings or losses. ISS often priced its services at below-market rates, and would occasionally reduce those prices further when a school was unable to pay the full fee. ..Generally, its school management services were priced in consideration of a school’s size, the risk attaching to the region where the school was located, and the difficulty of providing educational services in that region.

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Bluebook (online)
21 A.3d 1166, 207 N.J. 3, 2011 N.J. LEXIS 696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-schools-services-inc-v-west-windsor-township-nj-2011.