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Committee hears bill to protect small religious organizations from parsonage property tax assessments
Summary
A bill to limit when small religious organizations can lose property tax exemptions drew testimony Tuesday, with sponsors saying assessors have sometimes taxed parsonages when a pastor no longer lives on site and municipal representatives warning the proposal could shift costs or require legal clarification.
House Bill 585 drew a packed hearing in Ways and Means where sponsor Representative John Janigian of Rockingham District 25 described cases of small congregations facing property tax bills when a parsonage ceased to be occupied by a resident pastor.
Janigian told the committee the law at RSA 72:23 currently exempts parsonages but some assessors have taken narrower readings: if the parsonage is rented out rather than occupied by the pastor, the assessor may treat it as taxable property. He used his own Arret Armenian Congregational Church in Salem as an example: as the congregation shrank and no full‑time pastor lived in the parsonage, the town assessed roughly $4,000 a year on the parsonage, a burden for a…
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