The Bucks County Court of Common Pleas reversed the Bucks County Board of Assessment Appeals and granted an exemption from Real Estate taxes to Paul R. Cohen's client. The decision will save the non-profit client over $25,000 a year in taxes.
The non-profit is a private school located in Bucks County, occupying a 90 acre campus. Although most of the land was previously determined to be exempt from real estate taxes, the Bucks County Board of Assessment levied a tax on a 5-acre piece of land containing 10 faculty and administrative residences. At trial, the County and School District argued that the housing was not necessary for the purposes of the School. In his trial brief, Paul R. Cohen concluded as follows:
At the hearing, counsel for the Board of Assessment suggested that exemption should be denied based on the fact that other residences exist on campus and the occupants of those residences would be able to provide adequate service to the School. This argument would essentially force this Court to put its own judgment as to the needs of the School and of the children on campus ahead of the judgment of [the School's] Administrators, Board of Trustees and their collective experience. The School is required only to demonstrate that it has a “reasonable necessity . . . embracing the idea of convenience and usefulness for the purposes intended, and is not required to prove. . .” absolute necessity. In re: Swarthmore College, 165 Pa. Cmwlth. 564, 570, 645 A.2d 470, 472 (1994). This burden has been met.
Ultimately, the Court granted the request for an exemption without a written opinion and the Board of Assessment and School District did not appeal.
