Orange County, Monsey, NY – In the case of a Sephardic Congregation of South Monsey v. Town of Ramapo, the New York Appellate Court held that the building housing both the synagogue and the rabbi's residence qualifies for a full property tax exemption.
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Reversing the trial court, the appellate court held that even though more than half of the building was used as Rabbi Arash Hakakian's residence, this use is necessary and incidental to the building's tax exempt religious purpose.
Rabbi Hakakian testified that he devotes 40 to 45 hours per week to the Congregation on premises and that he is available on-call to members 24 hours per day. [religionclause]
Is this a chidush? All property owned by shuls is tax exempt.
This was one of the promises of Preserve Ramapo. I have a feeling they are feeding information to the town and the town has to act on such reports.
I’d say the real news here is that Monsey has moved to Orange County, apparently….
The Town of Ramapo has been rampaging against synagogue tax exemption.
I know a congregation that has been to court with them 3 times already – one of the times they were claiming back-tax for an exempt property that had already paid that back-tax before it received exemption.
There are suspicions around that someone in the tax-office in Ramapo has a connection with a tax attorney. The Town makes a wrongful assessment, collects the tax, the attorney appeals and receives a refund, he takes his 30%, and shares it with the ….