Nevada Nonprofit
Do churches in Nevada have to pay property tax on leased buildings they rent for services?
If a church in Nevada leases a building in which to hold their services, and the landlord adds property tax to the lease provisions, do churches as nonprofits have to pay property tax on this leased property?
You could pay an attorney to answer this question because it calls for a legally researched answer. This is an attempt at guessing so I can get 10 points for best answer, so here goes:
In general, churches are exempt from paying property tax in Nevada if they own the land. See NRS 361.125 (Exemption of churches and chapels). However, you speak of a lease between a landlord and a church. The landlord has no right to the exemption so he’ll want to pass the burden of taxation to the tenant as a business decision to save money. That’s a contractual issue, most likely, and you may have to read the contract between the two parties. I am not aware that many lessees pay property tax in general for a lease situation but it would definitely depend on how the language is worded.