February 8, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
New Hampshire’s Supreme Court has ruled that a nursing-home operator meets the standards of being a nonprofit organization and should not be required to pay property taxes. In doing so, the court offered nonprofit groups in the Granite State a look at what they must be able to prove to maintain their tax-exempt status.
ElderTrust of Florida — the owner of the Epsom Manor nursing home and an assisted-living facility called Heartland Place — sued the Town of Epsom, N.H., after the town charged it $104,779 in property taxes for the 2002 tax year. ElderTrust paid the tax but in its lawsuit said that it should have qualified for a charitable tax exemption for its facilities.
A lower court ruled in favor of ElderTrust but the town appealed the decision. The state’s Supreme Court concluded that ElderTrust was operating as a charity.
For a copy of the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling: Go to http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme/opinions/2007/elder005.pdf.
