149 A. 685 | Conn. | 1930
This is an appeal from the board of relief of the defendant town, based upon the refusal of the board to strike from the tax list for October, 1927, certain property of the plaintiff which it claimed to be exempt from taxation. Chapter 319 of the Public Acts *205 of 1927, in effect on October 1st, 1927, exempts from taxation "the real property of, or held in trust for, a Connecticut corporation organized exclusively for scientific, educational, literary, historical or charitable purposes, or for two or more such purposes and used exclusively for carrying out one or more of such purposes and the personal property of, or held in trust for, any such corporation, provided (a) any officer, member or employee thereof does not receive or at any future time shall not receive any pecuniary profit from the operations thereof, except reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of such purposes or as proper beneficiary of its strictly charitable purposes, and provided (b) an annual statement on forms prepared by the tax commissioner shall be filed on or before the last day required by law for the filing of assessment returns with the local board of assessors of any town, consolidated town and city, or consolidated town and borough, in which any of its property thought to be exempt is situated." All other questions aside, if it does not appear that the situation of the plaintiff brings it within the provisions of subdivision (a) of the statute as quoted, the plaintiff is not entitled to the exemption it claims.
For a great many years prior to 1925 our statutes granted an exemption from taxation to "colleges, academies, churches, public schoolhouses or infirmaries"; General Statutes, § 1160, as amended by Public Acts of 1921, Chap. 109. In several cases we have had occasion to consider the meaning and effect of this provision of the statutes. In Pomfret School v. Pomfret,
The statute under which the plaintiff was incorporated provides for the formation of corporations without capital stock to promote or carry out any lawful purpose other than that of a mercantile or manufacturing business or a business "conducted solely for profit." General Statutes, § 3534, as amended by Public Acts of 1919, Chap. 65. There is in the quoted phrase an implied grant of power to such corporations to make, from the carrying out of the purposes for which they are organized, an incidental profit, and if they do so, like any other corporation, in the absence of limitations in their articles of association or by-laws, they have the power to distribute this profit among their members. McKean v. Biddle,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.