By Jeff Labine

Church fights tax bill

Apr 4, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Prince Albert’s Embassy Church is fighting a $370,000 tax bill.

The church purchased the former Co-op building at the corner of River St. and First Ave. E. several years ago, resulting in renovations. The property was assessed at 100 per cent commercial between 2012 and 2014 during its construction phase.

Pastor Meghan Mayer told council on Monday there’s no historical precedence in the province for a church to be taxed during construction. She said at the time, the church, which currently has a 150 person congregation, wasn’t operating as a business so it shouldn’t be taxed as one.

“Consistently, city officials have recognized the flaws in the assessment and propose the church be either exonerated from any arrears including interest and penalties that relates to the pre-construction tax assessment or instead, be tax based on the post-construction assessment,” she said. “The church feels applying the 2014 assessment for limited commercial space along Central Avenue is a fair concession on its part.”

The majority of the property is church space with only 25 per cent assessed as commercial. Mayer argued the tax bill should be closer to $13,700 for each year of construction.

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She explained the church, a non-profit, operates mostly on donations with some money also coming in from renting out the hall for events and conventions. She said its common practice for churches to rent out their halls.

She added the building has now been assessed at being 25 per cent commercial, which is what they pay taxes on.

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter