Opinion
No. 32533
Decided May 31, 1951.
Taxation — Exemptions — Section 5353, General Code — Property acquired and held for charitable purposes — Undergoing improvements on tax-lien day for conversion to charitable uses — Exemption allowed.
APPEAL from the Board of Tax Appeals.
Appellant, The Good Samaritan Hospital Association of Sandusky, Ohio, a corporation not for profit formed for the purpose of maintaining and conducting a hospital and training school for nurses, filed with the Board of Tax Appeals an application for exemption from taxation for the year 1950 of certain real property, under Section 5353, General Code, which exempts from taxation "property belonging to institutions used exclusively for charitable purposes."
The parcel of land in question, adjacent to appellant's hospital and improved with a dwelling house and barn and used as a residence by the former owner until prior to December 1, 1949, was acquired by appellant on August 19, 1949, "for the purpose of making the property into a nurses' or student nurses' home or other hospital use."
The record shows that, continuously from before tax-lien day 1950 until the hearing before the chairman of the Board of Tax Appeals the following November, the property was undergoing repairs to make it suitable for a student nurses' home, but during no part of such period was it so used, the repairs not having been completed.
At the hearing, appellant's witness testified that the barn "is presently being used for the storage of materials in connection with the construction of the hospital project itself, and the basement of the house for storage purposes for materials in connection with the construction of the hospital." The hospital was in operation at the time and was being enlarged and remodeled.
The Board of Tax Appeals denied the exemption on the ground that property acquired for a contemplated exempt use is not entitled to exemption until it is actually used for the exempt purpose.
The cause is in this court on appeal from the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals.
Mr. B.G. Zeiher, for appellant.
Mr. C. William O'Neill, attorney general, Mr. William E. Didelius, prosecuting attorney, and Mr. Robert E. Leach, for appellees.
As the record discloses that since on and before tax-lien day 1950 the property in question, acquired by appellant for use for a charitable purpose, was undergoing repairs and remodeling to condition it for the charitable use for which it was acquired, and there being nothing in the record to show that during such time it had been used for a noncharitable purpose, the Board of Tax Appeals was in error in denying the exemption. Its decision is unlawful and unreasonable and is, therefore, reversed.
Decision reversed.
STEWART, MIDDLETON, TAFT and HART, JJ., concur.
Prospective use of property for an exempted purpose does not warrant its present exemption from taxation. Incorporated Trustees of Gospel Worker Society v. Evatt, Tax Commr., 140 Ohio St. 185, 42 N.E.2d 900; Pfeiffer et al., Trustees of Akron Public Library, v. Jenkins et al., Board of Tax Appeals, 141 Ohio St. 66, 46 N.E.2d 767; Ursuline Academy of Cleveland v. Board of Tax Appeals, 141 Ohio St. 563, 49 N.E.2d 674; and Welfare Federation of Cleveland v. Glander, Tax Commr., 146 Ohio St. 146, 64 N.E.2d 813.