Jump directly to the Content

News&Reporting

Court Says City Can Tax Church Room By Room

(Updated) After losing its tax fight, Destiny Christian Church has sold its 26-acre property to a developer.
|

Update (April 13, 2013): Less than one year after losing its tax fight in the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Destiny Christian Church has been sold to a realty developer. According to the Concord Monitor, the property "will be subdivided to build new homes, with the hope of selling part of an existing church building to a church and selling the remaining acreage as farmland."

––-

New Hampshire cities can tax churches on portions of their property deemed not to be used for religious purposes, according to a unanimous ruling by the state's Supreme Court.

In 2008, the City of Concord taxed Liberty Assembly of God (now Destiny Christian Center) on 40 percent of its property, including vacant apartments, storage rooms, and a second-floor men's restroom. The church appealed, arguing that "the city wasn't empowered to decide, room by room, which parts of a church were and were not religious," according to the Concord Monitor.

The state Supreme Court disagreed, ruling 4-0 that "a church's assertion ...

Subscriber access only You have reached the end of this Article Preview
To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access.
Already a CT subscriber? for full digital access.

Read These Next

close
hide this
Access The Archives

Member-Only Access

Subscribe to Christianity Today to continue reading this article from CT's digital archives.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? to continue reading.