Lawrence Temple Loses Tax-Exempt Status

The president of Lawrence’s said he was “baffled” after the reform synagogue was informed by the county that it lost part of its tax-exempt status.

Since the temple has a for-profit caterer on its premises, it needs to pay some taxes, according to a Department of Assessment spokesperson. He also said the department is investigating other synagogues in the Five Towns area that host for-profit caterers.

“A portion of the property was made partially taxable because of the presence of a for-profit caterer operating on the property and the temple’s refusal in recent years to provide … specific documentation that is mandated under New York State Real Property Tax Law,” Randolph Yunker, the director of communications for the Nassau County Department of Assessment, told Patch. “A disclosure statement is required to be filed if a portion of the wholly exempt property is being leased or rented to a for-profit entity.”

James Rotenberg, president of Temple Israel, called Yunker’s statements inaccurate.
“Temple Israel was requested to provide three years of its financial statements, something that as a religious institution the temple is not even required to provide to the IRS to prove exempt status,” he said. “We note further that there are at least five other religious institutions in the Five Towns area that have similar arrangements with for-profit caterers, none of which have lost their fully exempt status.”

According to Yunker, the Department of Assessment has reclassified numerous properties that had been tax exempt to partially exempt because of for-profit operations such as caterers and day care centers on their properties.

But Rotenberg questioned where the line is drawn, and pointed to Hofstra University, which he said also has for-profit caterers on its premises.

“This is indeed a slippery slope for any taxing authority to embark on,” he said. “As the U.S. Supreme Court has so eloquently stated: ‘The power to tax is the power to destroy.’”