Section 14-23 - Exemption denial for property used for private profit, investment purposes or primarily for commercial purposes (a) For exemptions that require that property use cannot be for private profit, primarily for commercial purposes, or for investment purposes, the following shall apply. - (i) In making a determination of use for private profit, one distinctive feature is whether the entity has capital stock and a provision for dividends of profits, or whether it derives funds mainly from the public and private charity, holding them in trust to be expended only for charitable and benevolent purposes.
- (A) An institution may charge fees or engage in business, but no gain or value may be distributed to members or stockholders. The officers and members may have no pecuniary interest in the property from which they gain. Payments made to officers, employees, contractors and suppliers shall be reasonable and not an indirect means of conferring gain or profit to private persons.
- (B) Revenue from fees paid by recipients of the charity or services shall be devoted only to the maintenance of the institution or its purposes.
- (C) A grant of sales/use tax exempt status by the State as a qualified charitable organization, or the grant of income tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service as a "501(c)(3)" or similar organization, is not binding in making the determination of whether the property of the entity is exempt from property taxation. Assessors may consider compliance with and operation under the tax exempt provisions of the Internal Revenue Service Code or an exemption from sales and use tax as a rebuttable presumption the institutions operations are reasonable and not for profit.
- (D) The matter of private profit concerns the way property is used, not solely the ownership thereof. The entire use of the property by all concerned shall be considered.
- (ii) The property at issue shall not be used primarily for a "commercial purpose", that is use of property or any portion thereof to provide services, merchandise, area or activities for a charge, which are generally obtainable from any commercial enterprise and are collateral to the purpose of the entity.
- (A) Commercial purpose includes, without limitation, the operation for charge of bars, restaurants, dancing areas, merchandise shops, housing, theaters and bowling alleys.
- (B) The use of property for commercial purpose is controlling, not whether or not a profit is actually made nor how the revenue is ultimately used. If and activity is considered "commercial", it does not become non-commercial merely because the revenue derived from the commercial use is devoted to charitable or authorized purposes.
011-14 Wyo. Code R. § 14-23