§ 44-3-3 - Property exempt.
SECTION 44-3-3
§ 44-3-3 Property exempt. – The following property is exempt from taxation.
(1) Property belonging to the state except as provided insection 44-4-4.1;
(2) Lands ceded or belonging to the United States;
(3) Bonds and other securities issued and exempted fromtaxation by the government of the United States, or of this state;
(4) Real estate, used exclusively for military purposes,owned by chartered or incorporated organizations approved by the adjutantgeneral, and composed of members of the national guard, the naval militia, orthe independent chartered military organizations;
(5) Buildings for free public schools, buildings forreligious worship, and the land upon which they stand and immediatelysurrounding them, to an extent not exceeding five (5) acres so far as thebuildings and land are occupied and used exclusively for religious oreducational purposes;
(6) Dwellings houses and the land on which they stand, notexceeding one acre in size, or the minimum lot size for zone in which thedwelling house is located, whichever is the greater, owned by or held in trustfor any religious organization and actually used by its officiating clergy;provided, further that in the town of Charlestown, where the propertypreviously described in this paragraph is exempt in total, along with dwellinghouses and the land on which they stand in Charlestown, not exceeding one acrein size, or the minimum lot size for zone in which the dwelling house islocated, whichever is the greater, owned by or held in trust for any religiousorganization and actually used by its officiating clergy, or used as a convent,nunnery, or retreat center by its religious order.
(7) Intangible personal property owned by, or held in trustfor, any religious or charitable organization, if the principal or income isused or appropriated for religious or charitable purposes;
(8) Buildings and personal estate owned by any corporationused for a school, academy, or seminary of learning, and of any incorporatedpublic charitable institution, and the land upon which the buildings stand andimmediately surrounding them to an extent not exceeding one acre, so far asthey are used exclusively for educational purposes, but no property or estatewhatever is hereafter exempt from taxation in any case where any part of itsincome or profits or of the business carried on there is divided among itsowners or stockholders;
(9) Estates, persons, and families of the president andprofessors for the time being of Brown University for not more than tenthousand dollars ($ 10,000) for each officer, the officer's estate, person, andfamily included, but only to the extent that any person had claimed andutilized the exemption prior to, and for a period ending either on or afterDecember 31, 1996;
(10) Property especially exempt by charter unless theexemption has been waived in whole or in part.
(11) Lots of land exclusively for burial grounds;
(12) Property, real and personal, held for or by anincorporated library, society, or any free public library, or any free publiclibrary society, so far as the property is held exclusively for librarypurposes, or for the aid or support of the aged poor, or poor friendlesschildren, or the poor generally, or for a hospital for the sick or disabled;
(13) Real or personal estate belonging to or held in trustfor the benefit of incorporated organizations of veterans of any war in whichthe United States has been engaged, the parent body of which has beenincorporated by act of congress, to the extent of four hundred thousand dollars($ 400,000) if actually used and occupied by the association; provided, thatthe city council of the city of Cranston may by ordinance exempt the real orpersonal estate as previously described in this subdivision located within thecity of Cranston to the extent of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000);
(14) Property, real and personal, held for or by thefraternal corporation, association, or body created to build and maintain abuilding or buildings for its meetings or the meetings of the general assemblyof its members, or subordinate bodies of the fraternity, and for theaccommodation of other fraternal bodies or associations, the entire net incomeof which real and personal property is exclusively applied or to be used tobuild, furnish, and maintain an asylum or asylums, a home or homes, a school orschools, for the free education or relief of the members of the fraternity, orthe relief, support, and care of worthy and indigent members of the fraternity,their wives, widows, or orphans, and any fund given or held for the purpose ofpublic education, almshouses, and the land and buildings used in connectiontherewith;
(15) Real estate and personal property of any incorporatedvolunteer fire engine company or incorporated volunteer ambulance or rescuecorps in active service;
(16) The estate of any person who in the judgment of theassessors is unable from infirmity or poverty to pay the tax; providing, thatin the town of Burrillville the tax shall constitute a lien for five (5) yearson the property where the owner is entitled to the exemption. At the expirationof five (5) years, the lien shall be abated in full. Provided, if the propertyis sold or conveyed or if debt secured by the property is refinanced during thefive (5) year period, the lien immediately becomes due and payable; any personclaiming the exemption aggrieved by an adverse decision of an assessor shallappeal the decision to the local board of tax review, and thereafter accordingto the provisions of section 44-5-26;
(17) Household furniture and family stores of a housekeeperin the whole, including clothing, bedding, and other white goods, books, andall other tangible personal property items which are common to the normalhousehold;
(18) Improvements made to any real property to provide ashelter and fallout protection from nuclear radiation, to the amount of onethousand five hundred dollars ($ 1,500); provided, that the improvements meetapplicable standards for shelter construction established from time to time bythe Rhode Island emergency management agency. The improvements are deemed tocomply with the provisions of any building code or ordinance with respect tothe materials or the methods of construction used and any shelter or itsestablishment is deemed to comply with the provisions of any zoning code orordinance;
(19) Aircraft for which the fee required by § 1-4-6 hasbeen paid to the tax administrator;
(20) Manufacturers inventory;
(i) For the purposes of §§ 44-4-10, 44-5-3,44-5-20, and 44-5-38, a person is deemed to be a manufacturer within a city ortown within this state if that person uses any premises, room, or place in itprimarily for the purpose of transforming raw materials into a finished productfor trade through any or all of the following operations: adapting, altering,finishing, making, and ornamenting; provided, that public utilities,non-regulated power producers commencing commercial operation by sellingelectricity at retail or taking title to generating facilities on or after July1, 1997, building and construction contractors, warehousing operationsincluding distribution bases or outlets of out-of-state manufacturers, andfabricating processes incidental to warehousing or distribution of rawmaterials such as alteration of stock for the convenience of a customer, areexcluded from this definition.
(ii) For the purposes of §§ 44-3-3, 44-4-10, and44-5-38, the term "manufacturer's inventory" or any similar term means andincludes the manufacturer's raw materials, the manufacturer's work in process,and finished products manufactured by the manufacturer in this state, and notsold, leased, or traded by the manufacturer or its title or right to possessiondivested; provided, that the term does not include any finished products heldby the manufacturer in any retail store or other similar selling place operatedby the manufacturer whether or not the retail establishment is located in thesame building in which the manufacturer operates the manufacturing plant.
(iii) For the purpose of § 44-11-2, a "manufacturer" isa person whose principal business in this state consists of transforming rawmaterials into a finished product for trade through any or all of theoperations described in paragraph (i) of this subdivision. A person will bedeemed to be principally engaged if the gross receipts which that personderived from the manufacturing operations in this state during the calendaryear or fiscal year mentioned in § 44-11-1 amounted to more than fiftypercent (50%) of the total gross receipts which that person derived from allthe business activities in which that person engaged in this state during thetaxable year. For the purpose of computing the percentage, gross receiptsderived by a manufacturer from the sale, lease, or rental of finished productsmanufactured by the manufacturer in this state, even though the manufacturer'sstore or other selling place may be at a different location from the locationof the manufacturer's manufacturing plant in this state, are deemed to havebeen derived from manufacturing.
(iv) Within the meaning of the preceding paragraphs of thissubdivision, the term "manufacturer" also includes persons who are principallyengaged in any of the general activities coded and listed as establishmentsengaged in manufacturing in the standard industrial classification manualprepared by the technical committee on industrial classification, office ofstatistical standards, executive office of the president, United States bureauof the budget, as revised from time to time, but eliminating as manufacturersthose persons, who, because of their limited type of manufacturing activities,are classified in the manual as falling within the trade rather than anindustrial classification of manufacturers. Among those thus eliminated, andaccordingly also excluded as manufacturers within the meaning of thisparagraph, are persons primarily engaged in selling, to the general public,products produced on the premises from which they are sold, such asneighborhood bakeries, candy stores, ice cream parlors, shade shops, and customtailors, except, that a person who manufactures bakery products for saleprimarily for home delivery, or through one or more non-baking retail outlets,and whether or not retail outlets are operated by person, is a manufacturerwithin the meaning of this paragraph.
(v) The term "Person" means and includes, as appropriate, aperson, partnership, or corporation.
(vi) The department of revenue shall provide to the localassessors any assistance that is necessary in determining the properapplication of the definitions in this subdivision.
(21) Real and tangible personal property acquired to providea treatment facility used primarily to control the pollution or contaminationof the waters or the air of the state, as defined in chapter 12 of title 46 andchapter 25 of title 23, respectively, the facility having been constructed,reconstructed, erected, installed, or acquired in furtherance of federal orstate requirements or standards for the control of water or air pollution orcontamination, and certified as approved in an order entered by the director ofenvironmental management. The property is exempt as long as it is operatedproperly in compliance with the order of approval of the director ofenvironmental management; provided, that any grant of the exemption by thedirector of environmental management in excess of ten (10) years is approved bythe city or town in which the property is situated. This provision applies onlyto water and air pollution control properties and facilities installed for thetreatment of waste waters and air contaminants resulting from industrialprocessing; furthermore, it applies only to water or air pollution controlproperties and facilities placed in operation for the first time after April13, 1970;
(22) New manufacturing machinery and equipment acquired orused by a manufacturer and purchased after December 31, 1974. Manufacturingmachinery and equipment is defined as:
(i) Machinery and equipment used exclusively in the actualmanufacture or conversion of raw materials or goods in the process ofmanufacture by a manufacturer as defined in subdivision (20) of this section,and machinery, fixtures, and equipment used exclusively by a manufacturer forresearch and development or for quality assurance of its manufactured products;
(ii) Machinery and equipment which is partially used in theactual manufacture or conversion of raw materials or goods in process ofmanufacture by a manufacturer as defined in subdivision (20) of this section,and machinery, fixtures, and equipment used by a manufacturer for research anddevelopment or for quality assurance of its manufactured products, to theextent to which the machinery and equipment is used for the manufacturingprocesses, research and development or quality assurance. In the instanceswhere machinery and equipment is used in both manufacturing and/or research,and development, and/or quality assurance activities and non-manufacturingactivities, the assessment on machinery and equipment is prorated by applyingthe percentage of usage of the equipment for the manufacturing, research, anddevelopment and quality assurance activity to the value of the machinery andequipment for purposes of taxation, and the portion of the value used formanufacturing, research, and development, and quality assurance is exempt fromtaxation. The burden of demonstrating this percentage usage of machinery andequipment for manufacturing and for research, and development and/or qualityassurance of its manufactured products rests with the manufacturer; and
(iii) Machinery and equipment described in § 44-18-30(7)and (22) that was purchased after July 1, 1997; provided that the city or towncouncil of the city or town in which the machinery and equipment is locatedadopts an ordinance exempting the machinery and equipment from taxation. Forpurposes of this subsection, city councils and town councils of anymunicipality may by ordinance wholly or partially exempt from taxation themachinery and equipment discussed in this subsection for the period of timeestablished in the ordinance and may by ordinance establish the procedures fortaxpayers to avail themselves of the benefit of any exemption permitted underthis section; provided, that the ordinance does not apply to any machinery orequipment of a business, subsidiary or any affiliated business which locates orrelocates from a city or town in this state to another city or town in thestate.
(23) Precious metal bullion, meaning any elementary metalwhich has been put through a process of melting or refining, and which is in astate or condition that its value depends upon its content and not its form.The term does not include fabricated precious metal which has been processed ormanufactured for some one or more specific and customary industrial,professional, or artistic uses;
(24) Hydroelectric power generation equipment, whichincludes, but is not limited to, turbines, generators, switchgear, controls,monitoring equipment, circuit breakers, transformers, protective relaying, busbars, cables, connections, trash racks, headgates, and conduits. Thehydroelectric power generation equipment must have been purchased after July 1,1979, and acquired or used by a person or corporation who owns or leases a damand utilizes the equipment to generate hydroelectric power;
(25) Subject to authorization by formal action of the councilof any city or town, any real or personal property owned by, held in trust for,or leased to an organization incorporated under chapter 6 of title 7, asamended, or an organization meeting the definition of "charitable trust" setout in § 18-9-4, as amended, or an organization incorporated under the notfor profits statutes of another state or the District of Columbia, the purposeof which is the conserving of open space, as that term is defined in chapter 36of title 45, as amended, provided the property is used exclusively for thepurposes of the organization;
(26) Tangible personal property, the primary function ofwhich is the recycling, reuse, or recovery of materials (other than preciousmetals, as defined in § 44-18-30(24) (ii) and (iii)), from or thetreatment of "hazardous wastes", as defined in § 23-19.1-4, where the"hazardous wastes" are generated primarily by the same taxpayer and where thepersonal property is located at, in, or adjacent to a generating facility ofthe taxpayer. The taxpayer may, but need not, procure an order from thedirector of the department of environmental management certifying that thetangible personal property has this function, which order effects a conclusivepresumption that the tangible personal property qualifies for the exemptionunder this subdivision. If any information relating to secret processes ormethods of manufacture, production, or treatment is disclosed to the departmentof environmental management only to procure an order, and is a "trade secret"as defined in § 28-21-10(b), it shall not be open to public inspection orpublicly disclosed unless disclosure is otherwise required under chapter 21 oftitle 28 or chapter 24.4 of title 23;
(27) Motorboats as defined in § 46-22-2 for which theannual fee required in § 46-22-4 has been paid;
(28) Real and personal property of the Providence performingarts center, a non-business corporation as of December 31, 1986;
(29) Tangible personal property owned by, and usedexclusively for the purposes of, any religious organization located in the cityof Cranston;
(30) Real and personal property of the Travelers Aid Societyof Rhode Island, a nonprofit corporation, the Union Mall Real EstateCorporation, and any limited partnership or limited liability company which isformed in connection with, or to facilitate the acquisition of, the ProvidenceYMCA Building; and
(31) Real and personal property of Meeting Street Center orMSC Realty, Inc., both not-for-profit Rhode Island corporations, and any othercorporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company which is formedin connection with, or to facilitate the acquisition of, the propertiesdesignated as the Meeting Street National Center of Excellence on Eddy Streetin Providence, Rhode Island.