158 F.2d 327 | D.C. Cir. | 1946
The case involves the right of the District of Columbia to tax the property of petitioner, a universally recognized religious organization, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1945. The Board of Tax Appeals concluded that a portion of the property involved was not exempt under Section 801a(n) of the tax law,
The essential facts found by the Board are as follows: Calvary Baptist Church is a religious organization in the District of Columbia. In the deed to the land on which the church building proper is erected there is a restrictive covenant limiting the amount of church indebtedness at any one time to $2,000. In the expansion of its religious activities the congregation planned to erect a Sunday School building which involved the necessity of borrowing sums of money in excess of $2,000. It accordingly organized petitioner, Calvary Baptist Church Extension Association, under the corporate laws of the District of Columbia. That corporation thereupon presumably took title to the land on which the Sunday School building was to be erected. In
The Tax Board found that petitioner is a trustee for Calvary Baptist Church. But, in the view we take of the broad language of subsection (n), the Board’s conclusion that the property was not primarily and regularly used for religious worship or missionary activity is clearly wrong. No one disputes the fact that the Church itself and its trustee, Extension Association, are both solely engaged in religious activities precisely within the terms of the statute. The controlling section (n) sets up but two elements in order that the property be exempt — (1) that the building belongs to a religious corporation or society, and (2) that it is primarily and regularly Used for religious worship, study, training and missionary activities. It is not disputed that both the Church and the Extension Association are within the terms of the first of these elements and it is clear to us that the entire use of the building is within the second. The Baptist Convention is an organization of Baptist Churches in the District of Columbia and nearby Maryland, to combine and direct the energies of the Baptist denomination in establishing and extending evangelical, missionary and benevolent work. The Baptist Alliance is an organization of the churches to strengthen denominational influence in advancing and defending religious convictions and in propagating the principles of its faith. No one questions that they are both bona fide religious organizations or that their activities are not entirely devoted to those religious objectives at home and abroad, which almost universally, in state and nation, are considered sufficient to secure immunity from taxation.
The Congressional Committee, which considered and reported the Act
Reversed.
Act of December 24, 1942, 56 Stat. 1089, D.C.Code (Supp.1945) tit. 47, § 801a(n).
Id. at § 801a (q).
H.R.Rep.No.2635, 77th Cong. 2d Sess. (1942).