FILING OF CLAIM
Claims for the Welfare Exemption must be signed and filed with the Assessor. Each claim must contain supporting documents including financial statements.
An officer or duly authorized representative of the organization owning the property must sign the claim. An officer or duly authorized representative of the organization operating the property must sign and file a separate claim. If an organization both owns and operates the property, only one claim need be signed and filed with the Assessor for each property location. A separate claim form must be completed and filed for each property for which exemption is sought.
The Assessor will supply claim forms and supporting documents upon request. A copy of the claim should be retained by the organization. It is recommended that the retained copy be submitted to the Assessor for acknowledgement of filing by entry of the date and the Assessor's or the designee's signature. This copy will serve as a record of filing should there be any later question relative thereto.
ORGANIZATIONAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE
An organization that is seeking the Welfare Exemption shall file with the State Board of Equalization (Board) a claim for an Organizational Clearance Certificate. The Board shall review each claim to determine whether the organization meets the requirements of section 214 and shall issue a certificate to a claimant that meets these requirements. The Assessor may not approve a property tax exemption claim until the claimant has been issued a valid Organizational Clearance Certificate. If the claim is filed timely with the Assessor, the claim will be considered timely filed even if the claimant has not yet received the Organizational Clearance Certificate from the Board.
Claim form BOE-277, Claim for Organizational Clearance Certificate - Welfare Exemption, is available on the Board's website (www.boe.ca.gov) or you may request a form by contacting the Exemptions Section at 916-274-3430.
PRIOR YEAR FILINGS
Year filed is the year in which the claim was submitted to the Assessor. State the exact name under which the organization filed for the year indicated.
RECORDATION REQUIREMENT
Revenue and Taxation Code section 261 requires that an organization claiming the Welfare Exemption for its real property must have recorded its ownership interest as of the lien date (12:01 a.m., January 1) in the recorder's office of the county in which the property is located.
A claimant which on the lien date has a possessory interest in publicly owned land, owns water rights, or owns improvements on land owned by another may in lieu of recordation file a copy of the document giving rise to that possessory interest or water rights or file a written statement attesting to the separate ownership of those improvements with the Assessor. Failure to establish the fact of such recordation to the Assessor constitutes a waiver of the exemption.
TIME FOR FILING
To receive the full exemption, the claimant must file a claim each year on or before February 15. Only 90 percent of any tax or penalty or interest thereon may be cancelled or refunded when a claim is filed between February 16 of the current year and January 1 of the following calendar year; if the application is filed thereafter, only 85 percent of any tax or penalty or interest thereon may be cancelled or refunded. In no case, however, is the tax, penalty, and interest for a given year to exceed $250.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The owner and the operator must furnish additional information to the Assessor, if requested. The Assessor may institute an audit or verification of the operations of the owner and of the operator and may request additional information from the claimant.
