Montreal Is Taxing Churches

[Thomas Walker]

Anyone know if this includes us?

 

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/no-more-religious-exemptions-montreal-is-taxing-churches-1.3415164

[New World Explorer]

Matt, it appears that churches who run social services are taxed.

 

Following that, city officials arrived for an inspection of every room in the church and how they were used.

"The indication is there's not an exemption for the church as a whole, there's only an exemption for those areas used for public worship and things directly related to it," said Coppetiers.

As a result, many churches in Montreal that host community groups, such as food banks, or Girl Guides or Boy Scouts, are facing mounting tax bills.

 

Kingdom Hall is fully utilized for public worship, we do not run kitchens for homeless etc etc...

[Sheep]

We had bought a property in Montreal in about 2014, with the intention of renovating the building on it and turning it into a Kingdom Hall. So when we had occupancy, we started on the renovations. But a short time afterward, the city started threatening to tax the property because it wasn't being used for religious purposes! They really didn't give us a lot of time. So we quickly got to work to set aside one area of the building as a makeshift temporary KH, and threw a couple of congregations in there just to keep the city from taxing the property.

 

Unfortunately, it was only shortly after that when the organization put a freeze on most building projects around the world, and so that Kingdom Hall renovation never got any further.

 

In April of this year, we reorganized the congregations and territories in Montreal, closing some congregations and Kingdom Halls and merging the remaining ones. It was decided to close that new Kingdom Hall, which had been in use only a few years. Apparently the KH had other issues with the city during that time, who promised us one thing and then changed their collective minds at the last minute. So it was best to let it go. For the time being, several Kingdom Halls in Montreal are up for sale, with congregations using them only for Saturday field service groups. I guess that's enough to keep the city off our backs. But for how long... who knows?

[Qapla]

In the city near us they bought land to build a Hall. They ran into some problems that where not known at the time of the purchase ... one of then was a buried gas line that would have run right under the building - a real No-No!

 

It took more than 10 years before a Hall could be built!

 

In the meantime - the city told the Congregation that in order to keep the tax exemption they would have to use the property for "religious purposes". So, for many years the Brothers would meet once a week on the property, circle their cars and hold a Meeting for Service in the morning. This worked and the property remained exempt. There is now a fairly new Hall on that land built by the LDC.

 

The Congregation that was next to us was merged out, some of them are in our Congregation. The Hall/building is up for sale. Until it sells, one of the neighboring Congregations holds a Meeting for Service there once a week to maintain the tax exemption.

[Thomas Walker]

Simple enough protection for JWs. Use a house of worship for worship. Imagine that.

 

No disrespect to other religions. I'm in favor of them doing things of use to the community. You hold an AA meeting, or host a youth group, you're contributing to the common good.

 

You hold an election or a secular concert, you're contributing to something else