58.1-3606 - Property exempt from taxation by classification.
§ 58.1-3606. Property exempt from taxation by classification.
A. Pursuant to the authority granted in Article X, Section 6 (a) (6) of theConstitution of Virginia to exempt property from taxation by classification,the following classes of real and personal property shall be exempt fromtaxation:
1. Property owned directly or indirectly by the Commonwealth, or anypolitical subdivision thereof.
2. Buildings with land they actually occupy, and the personal property ownedby churches or religious bodies, including (i) an incorporated church orreligious body and (ii) a corporation mentioned in § 57-16.1, and exclusivelyoccupied or used for religious worship or for the residence of the ministerof any church or religious body, and such additional adjacent land reasonablynecessary for the convenient use of any such building.
3. Nonprofit private or public burying grounds or cemeteries.
4. Property owned by public libraries, law libraries of local barassociations when the same are used or available for use by a state court orcourts or the judge or judges thereof, medical libraries of local medicalassociations when the same are used or available for use by state healthofficials, incorporated colleges or other institutions of learning notconducted for profit. This paragraph shall apply only to property primarilyused for literary, scientific or educational purposes or purposes incidentalthereto and shall not apply to industrial schools which sell their productsto other than their own employees or students.
5. Property belonging to and actually and exclusively occupied and used bythe Young Men's Christian Associations and similar religious associations,including religious mission boards and associations, orphan or other asylums,reformatories, hospitals and nunneries, conducted not for profit butexclusively as charities (which shall include hospitals operated by nonstockcorporations not organized or conducted for profit but which may chargepersons able to pay in whole or in part for their care and treatment).
6. Parks or playgrounds held by trustees for the perpetual use of the generalpublic.
7. Buildings with the land they actually occupy, and the furniture andfurnishings therein belonging to any benevolent or charitable organizationand used by it exclusively for lodge purposes or meeting rooms, together withsuch additional adjacent land as may be necessary for the convenient use ofthe buildings for such purposes.
8. Property of any nonprofit corporation organized to establish and maintaina museum.
B. Property, belonging in one of the classes listed in subsection A of thissection, which was exempt from taxation on July 1, 1971, shall continue to beexempt from taxation under the rules of statutory construction applicable toexempt property prior to such date.
(Code 1950, § 58-12; 1950, p. 61; 1952, c. 50; 1954, c. 65; 1956, c. 478;1956, Ex. Sess., c. 16; 1958, c. 361; 1960, c. 396; 1962, c. 129; 1964, c.198; 1966, c. 582; 1968, cc. 37, 807; 1969, Ex. Sess., c. 9; 1970, cc. 83,562; 1972, c. 667; 1973, c. 438; 1974, c. 469; 1984, c. 675; 1985, c. 495;2004, c. 492; 2005, c. 928.)