Permissive tax exemptions have been given to the same applicants in Spallumcheen.
The township announced that the Seventh Day Adventist Church and its North Okanagan Junior Academy School, Caravan Farm Theatre, Monastery of the Carmel of St. Joseph, Okanagan Boys and Girls Club, Hullcar and Deep Creek Hall Society and O’Keefe Ranch will all receive permissive tax exemptions.
Spallumcheen will exempt nearly $24,000 in taxes from the seven applicants for 2013, though that number is anticipated to drop to slightly more than $18,500 in 2014.
Council has given three readings to a bylaw approving the exemptions but only to the extent of $500,000.
Taking the biggest hit would be the monastery.
In 2013, the tax exempted from the monastery in the township was $10,844.52. That figure is anticipated to drop to $6,054 in 2014 because of the maximum exemption of $500,000 being put in by council.
“They used to receive a 100 per cent exemption, now it’s up to $500,000,” said township chief financial officer Brian Freeman-Marsh.
All of the applicants will receive a letter from the township requesting they do “everything in their power to reduce their exemption with the B.C. Assessment Authority so the permissive tax exemption would be smaller.”
The monastery and Okanagan Boys and Girls Club have received higher assessments due to upgrades at their facilities.
The permissive tax exemption at O’Keefe Ranch is for a two-hectare parcel of property that contains the O’Keefe House, Cook’s Bunkhouse, general store, steam pump, buggy shed, dairy and meat house, the original O’Keefe House, blacksmith shop, red shed and two cisterns.
