Court Opinion

ID: 9705327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:02:30.085455+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:09.932178
License: Public Domain

*1132SMITH, Judge,
Dissenting.
The majority quashes this appeal on an issue raised sua sponte by the Court, which has never been addressed by either party. I therefore respectfully dissent. Pastor M. Timothy Orth was permitted to apply for tax-exempt status for the Spirit of the Avenger Ministries (Ministries) before the Board of Finance and Revenue (Board) of the Department of Revenue (Department) as a pro se litigant. He was permitted to appeal pro se the Board’s decision to the Department’s Board of Appeals, to file pro se a petition for review in this Court and to file pro se a brief in this Court. On May 24, 2000 the Court entered an order requiring that this case be submitted on briefs. The record contains no indication that the need for the Ministries to be represented by an attorney was ever raised. Fundamental fairness requires the Court at this stage to decide the merits of the appeal or in the alternative to afford Pastor Orth an opportunity to respond to the issue raised by the majority or to obtain counsel within a reasonable time period.
As for the merits of the Ministries’ petition for review, I would affirm the order of the Board. The Ministries attacks the constitutional validity of the Institutions of Purely Public Charity Act (Act), Act of November 26, 1997, P.L. 508, 10 P.S. §§ 371-385. The Ministries contends that it is being improperly subjected to taxation and that the Act fails to recognize the sovereignty of its church. The Act is firmly grounded in common law. See Hospital Utilization Project v. Commonwealth, 507 Pa. 1, 487 A.2d 1306 (1985) (summarizing the 100 years of common law interpretation closely followed by the Act). Its purpose is to provide an objective standard that may be consistently and uniformly applied to any institution seeking exemption from the sales and use tax as a purely public charity. Section 2(b) of the Act, 10 P.S. § 372(b). The Ministries raises no meritorious constitutional challenge to the Act.
The Ministries has refused to provide the information that would allow the Commonwealth or this Court to determine whether it satisfies the uniform standards for a purely public charity established by the Act and by longstanding common law. In order to qualify as a purely public charity, an institution must meet each of the following five criteria: (1) advance a charitable purpose; (2) operate entirely free from private profit motive; (3) donate or render gratuitously a substantial portion of its services; (4) benefit a substantial and indefinite class of persons who are legitimate subjects of charity; and (5) relieve the government of some of its burden. Section 5 of the Act, 10 P.S. § 375; Hospital Utilization Project.
The Department does not dispute that the Ministries advances a charitable purpose. However, the Ministries has failed to provide the information necessary to satisfy the remaining four criteria. The Ministries provided no specific information concerning its revenue and expenses, and thus it has not shown that it satisfies the requirement that it operates entirely free from a private profit motive. Regarding the requirement that it donate or render gratuitously a substantial portion of its services, the Ministries asserted in an answer to an interrogatory that its charitable purposes include all of those purposes mentioned in Section 5(b) of the Act, 10 P.S. § 375(b). The Ministries offered no specific details as to what services it provided other than to state that it offers spiritual growth without any tangible goods. The Ministries is located in Pastor Orth’s home in which he also operates a travel agency and in which the other officers reside.
Likewise, the record contains no evidence that the Ministries benefits a substantial and indefinite class of persons who are legitimate subjects of charity. Concerning the requirement that the Ministries relieve the government of some of its burden, the Ministries’ stated purpose is to promote the teachings of God and Jesus as *1133expressed in the Bible. This purpose, however laudable, is insufficient to satisfy that criterion. Scripture Union v. Deitch, 132 Pa.Cmwlth. 134, 572 A.2d 51 (1990). Thus the Ministries’ appeal lacks merit, and the Court should so hold.