Chap. 215.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 435 of the Tax Code of ivi
ginia, as amended, relating to what property exempt from taxation, so as to
omit lands owned ‘by the United States. [H 320]

Approved March 14, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section four hundred thirty-five of the Tax Code of Vir-
ginia, as amended, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 435. What property, real and personal, exempt from tax-
ation, State and local.—The following property shall be exempt from
taxation, State and local, including inheritance taxes:

(a) Property owned directly or indirectly by the Commonwealth,
or any political subdivision thereof, and obligations of the Common-
wealth issued since February fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-
two, or hereafter exempted by law.

(b) Buildings with land they actually occupy, and the furniture and
furnishings therein and endowment funds lawfully owned and held by
churches or religious bodies, and wholly and exclusively used for re-
ligious worship, or for the residence of the minister of any church or
religious body, together with the additional adjacent land reasonably
necessary for the convenient use of any such building.
(c) Private or public burying grounds or cemeteries and endow-
ment funds, lawfully held, for their care, provided the same are not
operated for profit.

(d) Property owned by public libraries, law libraries of local bar
associations when the same are used or available for use by a State court
or courts or the judge or judges thereof, incorporated colleges or other
incorporated institutions of learning, not conducted for profit, together
with the endowment funds thereof not invested in real estate. But this
provision shall apply only to property primarily used for literary, scien-
tific or educational purposes or purposes incidental thereto. It shall not
apply to industrial schools which sell their product to other than their
own employees or students.

(e) Real estate belonging to, actually and exclusively occupied and
used by, and personal property, including endowment funds, belonging
to Young Men’s Christian Associations, and other similar religious
associations, orphan or other asylums, reformatories, hospitals and nun-
neries, conducted not for profit, but exclusively as charities, also parks
or playgrounds held by trustees for the perpetual use of the general

ublic.

(f{) Buildings with the land they actually occupy, and the furniture
and furnishings therein, belonging to any benevolent or charitable as-
sociation and used exclusively for lodge purposes or meeting rooms by
such association, together with such additional adjacent land as may be
necessary for the convenient use of the buildings for such purposes; and

(g) Property of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities, the Association for the Preservation of Petersburg Antiqui-
ties, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, the Mount Vernon La-
dies’ Association of the Union, the Virginia Historical Society, the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Incorporated, the posts of the
American Legion, posts of United Spanish War Veterans, posts of Vet-
terans of Foreign Ways, posts of the Disabled American Veterans, the
Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, and the Manassas
Battlefield Confederate Park, Incorporated, and the Robert E., Lee
Memorial Foundation, Incorporated, Belle Bryan Day Nursery, Incor-
porated, the Virginia Division United Daughters of the Confederacy, and
any corporation organized to establish and maintain a museum or mu-
seums, with or without a library or libraries, provided such corporation be
not operated for profit. On and after January first, nineteen hundred and
thirty-four the property now owned or which may be hereafter acquired
by Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, and used for museum, his-
torical, municipal, benevolent or charitable purposes, shall be exempt
from all taxation, as long as such corporation continues to be organized
and operated not for profit.

Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to exempt from
taxation the property of any person, firm, association, or corporation,
who shall, expressly or impliedly, directly or indirectly, contract or
promise to pay a sum of money or other benefit, on account of death.
sickness or accident to any of its members or other person. Whenever
anv building or land, or part thereof, mentioned in this section, and not
belonging to the State, shall be leased or shall otherwise be a source of
revenue or profit, all of such buildings and land shall be liable to taxation
as other land and buildings in the same county, city or town, except as
is now or may hereafter be provided by law.

Nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing or re-
quiring any county, city, or town to tax for county, city, or town pur-
poses, in violation of the rights of the lessees thereof, existing under
any lawful contract heretofore made, any real estate owned by such
county, city or town, as heretofore leased by it.

In assessing any building and the land it occupies which may be
owned exclusively by a benevolent or charitable institution, or by a
church or religious body, but all of which 1s not used exclusively for
lodge purposes or meeting rooms, or for church or religious or charitable
purposes, the assessing officers shall only assess for taxation such pro-
portional part of the fair market value of the entire property as would
be the comparative fair market value of the part of such land and build-
ing not used exclusively for lodge purposes or meeting rooms, or for
church or religious or charitable purposes.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.