“Why do we?

Since the “Manor tax” Taken into force last April, a multitude of groups broadcast their grievances.

The developers say that the tax is eating in their beneficiary margins, stifling new housing projects. The owners of commercial properties say that their sales of warehouses and retail spaces should not be subject to something that has been presented as a “mansion tax”.

Now, a new voice joins the choir of complaints: non -profit housing organizations.

In the past year, a pair of non -profit organizations spat $ 6.1 million in tax fees in Manoir. Their leaders say that the tax has hampered their ability to achieve one of the main objectives of the ULA: to provide affordable housing.

Adopted in 2022, Messure Ula brought a transfer tax of 4% to all sales of properties of the superior to $ 5 million and a tax of 5.5% in sales greater than $ 10 million. So far, he has raised more than $ 439 million For affordable housing prevention initiatives.

Bob Beitcher, Managing Director of Cinematographic and television fund The charitable organization was delighted when the voters approved the ULA, saying that the city benefits when millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.

But when the organization sold $ 30 million in the field, it had to pay $ 1.65 million in “mansion” money.

Given that MPTF's mission seemed to be aligned with the measure of ULA's mission to fight against the Los Angeles housing crisis, Beitcher assumed that the sale would be eligible for an exemption.

“Why have we never thought we would pay this tax,” said Beitcher. “When you hear the mansion tax, you think that millionaires and billionaires. We do not sell a mansion, we are a non -profit organization. ”

MPTF supports people in the cinema and television industries with housing, financial assistance and health care. It houses around 250 people on its 40 -acres campus in Woodland Hills, subsidizing subsistence costs for around 70 of them.

These subsidies – which include rent, medical costs and transport to doctors' offices – cost around $ 3 million a year. And in recent years, the organization has struggled to follow costs.

Consequently, the organization sold part of its campus – around 19 acres of unlikely land – to collect funds. He concluded the agreement In December 2023, the sale of the land in California Commercial Investment Group, which made the site in a community of life for luxury people of 300 units.

Exemptions are available for owners who sell to affordable housing promoters. But since MPTF sold the property to a luxury developer, he has not qualified.

MPTF has still left with $ 28.35 million – a massive part that will help him continue his mission. But the tax has always been a surprise.

Beitcher interviewed approximately an exemption for the tax bill of 1.65 million dollars, but was closed due to a strange wrinkle in the arrangement.

ULA ULA, Exemptions can be granted For non -profit organizations with history to develop affordable housing, but only if the non -profit organization is the buyer in the transaction. If the non -profit organization is the seller – Even if it is an organization whose work aligns with the objectives of the measurement of the ULA – it is in hook for the tax.

“It does not make sense that a non -profit organization in difficulty providing housing would pay the tax,” said Beitcher. “The tax was intended to maintain people housed, fed and safe in the streets. This is exactly what we have been doing for 83 years, so why do you get money from our pockets? ”

As a rule, non -profit organizations do not sell tens of millions of dollars in land, so the situation is somewhat rare. But Beitcher said rare or not, there must be a better solution.

“No one imagined this scenario when the law was built. And we pay the price,” said Beitcher.

Joe Donlin, who is director of United to HouseThe organization behind Measure ULA, said that the exemption rules have been designed to encourage sales to affordable non -profit housing developers like another avenue to build essential units. Each seller has this option, but if he chooses to sell to someone else, he will not be eligible for an exemption.

The exemptions are managed by two departments, depending on the type: the Finance office and the Housing service.

So far, the two have distributed ULA exemptions to those who qualify. The finance office granted 35 exemptions and the housing service granted 14. 670 sales were taxed under the ULA and 49 total exemptions, therefore about 7% of the sellers of “Manor tax” obtained exemptions.

“We are sensitive to these rare situations, but it is also important to recognize that almost 60% of voters have approved the measure of the ULA, and we are implementing it,” said Greg Good, director of strategic engagement and policy for the Housing Department.

Last month, a non -profit organization accumulated an even larger tax bill than MPTF.

In October, Jewish Health of Los AngelesA senior health non -profit organization sold a senior life complex in Playa Vista For $ 81 million. He found a buyer at the end of 2020, but the sales process has taken so long that ULA measurement was proposed, adopted and implemented before the conclusion of the agreement.

Consequently, the non -profit organization, which provides care for 4,000 elderly people, was blinded with a tax of $ 4.455 million under ULA.

The organization intended to use a piece of the product to develop affordable housing, noting the plan in the entire sale of the sale of $ 81 million. But now it's in danger.

“It's a shame because it is money that we would have used for affordable accommodation,” said CEO Dale Surowitz. “Now this plan is at risk.”

Surowitz said he was working with the member of the municipal council Bob Blumenfield to recover the $ 4.455 million, either by an exemption, or by making him reinvest in the non -profit association, but said that there were no clear paths for this to happen.

“I don't think they planned this,” said Surowitz. “I cannot imagine that they want a non -profit organization involved in the management of people who do not have financial resources to pay the tax, because it was Ula's intention.”