[hackerspaces] Tax-exempt Geek Group hit with huge tax bill

[David Powell]

I'm only part way through the video but that's not what it sounds like to
me. Sounds to me like they went to the county and got approval but may have
never got it in writing. Either way it's a pretty screwed up situation.

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Christopher J. Pilkington <cjp at 0x1.net>wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 06:37:24PM +0000, Loki wrote:
> >    Non-profit hackerspace [3]The Geek Group has been hit with a hefty tax
> >    bill despite their tax-exempt status. We featured a [4]boom camera
> [snip]
> >    for non-profit land holdings before). Thatās why it comes as quite a
> >    surprise when the township slaps a sticker on the doors giving notice
> >    of seizure and demanding payment for $47,652.78 in back taxes or the
> >    assets will be auctioned off. The entire story, from The Geek Groupās
>
> Sounds like they just assumed that property taxes don't apply to
> 501(c)3 organizations.
>
> Many states only exempt organizations from property taxes if
> they are public charities in the strictest sense (with a nice
> big exemption for houses of worship, who don't seem to have to
> divulge their finances.)
>
> Regardless, one needs to apply for exemption from property tax,
> his claim that "we're tax-exempt, we don't know a lot about
> filing taxes" is bogus.
>
> The neighboring state of Minnesota has been stripping property
> tax exemption from child day care centers that are 501(c)3, so I
> don't find this so far fetched.
>
>
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