Bill Text: TX SB1345 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to the exemption from ad valorem taxation of property owned by a charitable organization and used to provide tax return preparation and other financial services without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)

Status: (Passed) 2017-06-15 - Effective on 1/1/18 [SB1345 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-SB1345-Enrolled.html

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S.B. No. 1345

AN ACT
relating to the exemption from ad valorem taxation of property
owned by a charitable organization and used to provide tax return
preparation and other financial services without regard to the
beneficiaries' ability to pay.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 11.18(d), Tax Code, is amended to read as
follows:
(d) A charitable organization must be organized exclusively
to perform religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or
educational purposes and, except as permitted by Subsections (h)
and (l), engage exclusively in performing one or more of the
following charitable functions:
(1) providing medical care without regard to the
beneficiaries' ability to pay, which in the case of a nonprofit
hospital or hospital system means providing charity care and
community benefits in accordance with Section 11.1801;
(2) providing support or relief to orphans,
delinquent, dependent, or handicapped children in need of
residential care, abused or battered spouses or children in need of
temporary shelter, the impoverished, or victims of natural disaster
without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay;
(3) providing support without regard to the
beneficiaries' ability to pay to:
(A) elderly persons, including the provision of:
(i) recreational or social activities; and
(ii) facilities designed to address the
special needs of elderly persons; or
(B) the handicapped, including training and
employment:
(i) in the production of commodities; or
(ii) in the provision of services under 41
U.S.C. Sections 8501-8506 [46-48c];
(4) preserving a historical landmark or site;
(5) promoting or operating a museum, zoo, library,
theater of the dramatic or performing arts, or symphony orchestra
or choir;
(6) promoting or providing humane treatment of
animals;
(7) acquiring, storing, transporting, selling, or
distributing water for public use;
(8) answering fire alarms and extinguishing fires with
no compensation or only nominal compensation to the members of the
organization;
(9) promoting the athletic development of boys or
girls under the age of 18 years;
(10) preserving or conserving wildlife;
(11) promoting educational development through loans
or scholarships to students;
(12) providing halfway house services pursuant to a
certification as a halfway house by the parole division of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice;
(13) providing permanent housing and related social,
health care, and educational facilities for persons who are 62
years of age or older without regard to the residents' ability to
pay;
(14) promoting or operating an art gallery, museum, or
collection, in a permanent location or on tour, that is open to the
public;
(15) providing for the organized solicitation and
collection for distributions through gifts, grants, and agreements
to nonprofit charitable, education, religious, and youth
organizations that provide direct human, health, and welfare
services;
(16) performing biomedical or scientific research or
biomedical or scientific education for the benefit of the public;
(17) operating a television station that produces or
broadcasts educational, cultural, or other public interest
programming and that receives grants from the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting under 47 U.S.C. Section 396, as amended;
(18) providing housing for low-income and
moderate-income families, for unmarried individuals 62 years of age
or older, for handicapped individuals, and for families displaced
by urban renewal, through the use of trust assets that are
irrevocably and, pursuant to a contract entered into before
December 31, 1972, contractually dedicated on the sale or
disposition of the housing to a charitable organization that
performs charitable functions described by Subdivision (9);
(19) providing housing and related services to persons
who are 62 years of age or older in a retirement community, if the
retirement community provides independent living services,
assisted living services, and nursing services to its residents on
a single campus:
(A) without regard to the residents' ability to
pay; or
(B) in which at least four percent of the
retirement community's combined net resident revenue is provided in
charitable care to its residents;
(20) providing housing on a cooperative basis to
students of an institution of higher education if:
(A) the organization is exempt from federal
income taxation under Section 501(a), Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended, by being listed as an exempt entity under Section
501(c)(3) of that code;
(B) membership in the organization is open to all
students enrolled in the institution and is not limited to those
chosen by current members of the organization;
(C) the organization is governed by its members;
and
(D) the members of the organization share the
responsibility for managing the housing;
(21) acquiring, holding, and transferring unimproved
real property under an urban land bank demonstration program
established under Chapter 379C, Local Government Code, as or on
behalf of a land bank;
(22) acquiring, holding, and transferring unimproved
real property under an urban land bank program established under
Chapter 379E, Local Government Code, as or on behalf of a land bank;
(23) providing housing and related services to
individuals who:
(A) are unaccompanied and homeless and have a
disabling condition; and
(B) have been continuously homeless for a year or
more or have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the
preceding three years; [or]
(24) operating a radio station that broadcasts
educational, cultural, or other public interest programming,
including classical music, and that in the preceding five years has
received or been selected to receive one or more grants from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting under 47 U.S.C. Section 396, as
amended; or
(25) providing, without regard to the beneficiaries'
ability to pay, tax return preparation services and assistance with
other financial matters.
SECTION 2. This Act applies only to an ad valorem tax year
that begins on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect January 1, 2018.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1345 passed the Senate on
April 18, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 1.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1345 passed the House on
May 24, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, two
present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor