This case involves a property tax dispute between the Board of Tax Assessors of Ware County and the Ware County Board of Equalization which we refer to collectively as “the Board” and Baptist Village, Inc., a nonprofit charitable institution that operates a home for the aged in Waycross, Georgia. In 2002, the Board attempted to collect property taxes on the Waycross property’s new independent-living units. Baptist Village challenged this attempt at tax collection in Ware County Superior Court. Following a bench trial, the court held that Baptist Village’s independent-living units enjoyed the same longstanding charitable exemption as the assisted-living and nursing-care parts of that property. On appeal, the Board reasserts arguments made below that the new independent-living units are substantially unrelated to Baptist Village’s charitable purpose of providing care to the aged. We disagree, and therefore we affirm. Considered in the light most favorable to the trial court’s judgment, the evidence shows that Baptist Village operates homes for the elderly in Waycross, Macon, and Lake Park, Georgia. According to the language of its original charter, Baptist Village is a “charitable institution” whose purpose is “the reception, care, and maintenance of persons of advanced age.” Baptist Village neither issues capital stock nor pays any of its net earnings to any trustee or officer. Its by-laws describe Baptist Village as an “integrated auxiliary” of the Georgia Baptist Convention, to which its president and chief executive officer must make an annual report.
In 1961, Baptist Village received a tax determination letter from the United States Treasury Department granting it tax exempt status under Section 501 c 3 of the Internal Revenue Code due to Baptist Village’s “religious and charitable” purposes. At trial, Baptist Village’s current president testified that the Internal Revenue Service has never questioned this determination of the Village’s tax-exempt status. In 1997, the Georgia Department of Revenue issued its own determination that Baptist Village was exempt from Georgia income tax under OCGA § 48-7-25. Baptist Village does pay ad valorem taxes on properties in Ware and Jefferson Counties, neither of which is used in furtherance of its activities.
