Property Tax Exemption Upheld for Animal Rescue

The petitioner in this matter is a not-for-profit which operates an animal shelter in the Town of Kingston which sought an exemption from property taxes by virtue of its not-for-profit status. The respondent Assessor had denied the tax exemption on the basis that the property was being used to board privately owned pets for a fee, as opposed to a primary tax exempt charitable purpose of sheltering abandoned animals. The Supreme Court granted summary judgment in favor of the petitioner. In upholding the determination of the lower court, the Appellate Division found that the fee based potion of the boarding operation was merely incidental to the use of the property for the organization’s charitable purposes as only one-quarter of the property was used for fee based kennels. Moreover, the petitioners were able to demonstrate that the money realized from the private kenneling is exclusively used to further the charitable goals of petitioner.

The Court further found that the petitioner submitted sufficient evidence to show that the undeveloped and unutilized portions of the land was an exempt “integral part” of the shelter operation, as such property was necessary to act as a noise buffer to shield neighbors from the noise generated by the kennels.  Paws Unlimited Foundation, Inc. v. Maloney, 2012 Slip. Op. 512877