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Court Says Rabbis' Homes Qualify For NJ Parsonage Exemption

By Howard M. Friedman

Ina href="http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/taxcourt/08585-07opn.pdf" emMesivta Ohr Torah of Lakewood v. Township of Lakewood/em/a, (NJ Tax Ct., Dec. 10, 2008), the Tax Court of New Jersey held that two homes owned by a religious organization are entitled to the parsonage exemption from property tax under New Jersey law (a href="http://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=149100amp;Depth=2amp;depth=2amp;expandheadings=onamp;headingswithhits=onamp;hitsperheading=onamp;infobase=statutes.nfoamp;record={16641}amp;softpage=Doc_Frame_PG42"NJSA 54:4-3.6/a). The Tax Court found, that "while the synagogue is situated on school property and in a building that also houses educational pursuits, plaintiff maintains a separate and independent synagogue at the facility." It went on to hold that the parsonage exemption is available even though the congregation collected rent from the clergy occupying the houses, and that the receipt of federal a href="http://www.hud.gov/progdesc/voucher.cfm"Section 8 housing assistance /adoes not preclude the exemption. The court rejected the argument that granting tax exempt status to the properties while receiving federal subsidies would constitute an endorsement of religion by the federal government.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).