Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tax Exemption Middletown Youth Soccer topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Middletown Youth Soccer asks council to correct retroactive turf tax; committee forwards ordinance to full council
Summary
A representative for Middletown Youth Soccer told the General Counsel Commission the league was surprised to receive a retroactive personal-property tax bill tied to a PNC leasing arrangement and submitted documents asking the assessor’s office to correct the record; the committee voted to forward an ordinance to the full council for consideration.
A representative of Middletown Youth Soccer asked the General Counsel Commission on Dec. 11 to correct a retroactive personal‑property tax bill tied to an artificial turf field installed in 2019, saying the nonprofit believed the asset should be exempt.
The representative said the league raised funds and secured financing to install the turf at the Country Club Road field and that, because the organization is a 501(c)(3) using the field for the same charitable purpose as the underlying real estate, it expected a personal‑property exemption. “We are a 501(c)(3) corporation…we are exempt,” the Middletown Youth Soccer representative said, adding that the group had documentation, financing letters and prior correspondence it had provided to the assessor.
Tax Assessor Bosch told the commission the city taxed the leasing company that holds a capital lease on the turf (identified in the record as PNC/PNC Bank), not Middletown Youth Soccer, and that the lessor then passed the cost to the lessee. He said the leasing company originally filed the assets for informational purposes and did not report the full asset, which prompted the assessor’s office to add the omitted asset and issue bills dating back three years, the retroactive window the assessor said the municipality can apply.
“PNC is the lease owner; we taxed them on that asset,” Tax Assessor Bosch said, explaining the local practice and the statutory window for retroactive assessments.
Commissioners pressed the assessor on when the bills could be assessed and what would happen to monies already paid. The assessor confirmed the city can assess retroactively up to three years and said that, if the council adopts an ordinance applying a pass‑through exemption to leasing companies that lease to recognized charitable organizations, previously paid taxes could be reimbursed under that change. The assessor pointed to previous city amendments used for other properties, including one cited at the meeting for Riverbend and a church property.
Faced with unresolved questions and the need for broader council input about applying the ordinance more broadly to other nonprofits in town, the commission voted to forward the proposal to the full council without endorsement so the full council could review the ordinance and any proposed corrections. A commission member moved to send the matter to the full council; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote in the committee. Commissioners noted the full council public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. and invited Middletown Youth Soccer to present there.
The committee’s action does not itself retroactively change tax records; it moves a draft ordinance to the full council where any adoption, reimbursement or language clarifications would be addressed. The full council will consider whether to apply a local pass‑through exemption that would relieve a leasing company’s transferred tax burden when the leased asset serves a charitable purpose and whether to reimburse previously paid taxes if the ordinance is approved.
