Call Your House a Church, Get a Tax Break
July 17th, 2008 at 10:47am Aaron Chambers
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| My Future Garage? |
I’m thinking about building an altar in the garage, between the lawn mower and table saw …
When George Michael placed a cross on the side of his lakefront mansion, neighbors assumed the decoration was simply a display of the man’s religious faith.
What his neighbors didn’t know is that Michael had decided to convert his $3 million residence into the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff, qualifying him for a nearly $80,000 break on his annual property tax bill.
Now, locals are questioning whether the property is a church at all. Village officials wonder how they’ll be able to make up the lost revenue, and residents worry that their share of the tax burden will grow as a result.
Meanwhile, Lake Bluff officials notified Michael that if he is running a church, he’ll need to pay more than $115,000 in fines for failing to get the village’s permission, setting up a possible court battle.
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1 Comment Add your own
1. Bookworm | July 17th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Wow, I’m talkative (or blog-ative) today. No, I don’t think merely putting up an altar in your garage is going to work. Some very religious and wealthy people have been known to put private shrines or chapels in their homes (I know of a guy in the Peoria area who did that), but that doesn’t make their house a “church” or exempt them from real estate taxes.
Also, some denominations such as the Amish and Plymouth Brethren don’t have churches in the traditional sense. They meet in one another’s homes. (Garrison Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon Days” includes fictionalized descriptions of Brethren meetings at his aunt’s house.) However, that also doesn’t mean they can claim their houses as churches and avoid taxation either.
While I normally would not question anyone’s religious sincerity, it seems obvious to me that Mr. Michael was trying to scam the Illinois Department of Revenue and apparently (almost) succeeded. If he were simply and truly concerned about his disabled wife and daughter being able to practice their faith, he would do what millions of other homebound people (including my own parents) do — have their pastor or other church members visit them regularly.
The fact that he and his brother are also more than $10 million in debt and that Mr. Michael got an online “degree” in theology from an organization that has no connection to the denomination to which he professes to belong (which appears to be Eastern Orthodox) makes the whole thing even more fishy.
By the way, where did you find that picture? Is it from an old chapel, convent or what?
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