The Church of Scientology tries to throw people off by telling them that they are the highest payers of property tax in Clearwater. That might be true enough, because they (as a group of corporations) own more of the larger and more valuable properties than any other single person or corporate entity. What they are not telling anyone is the amount of taxes they are not paying into the county and city tax coffers because of some tax-exempt statuses. The amount of property taxes NOT collected from these buildings, because of WHO owns them, has to be made up by all the other property tax payers in the county.

As of 6/01/2008, the Church of Scientology owns 78 parcels in Pinellas County valued at $88 million (by the County Property Appraiser). They only pay 48% of the $1.8 million in annual property taxes due to various exemptions. Click here to view the data (caution: slow download and process time).

As of 5/11/2008, the Church of Scientology owns 76 parcels in Pinellas County. Click here for a list of all the properties (PDF) .

Anyone can check the public records at any point in time by going to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office website and checking for owners by name, checking for anything that begins with "Church of Scientology".

Click here to contribute information you know about any of these properties, including sending documents or photos of any of these properties.

7/07/2008: Church of Scientology buys Triangle Development's Island View project. Click for more information.

Photos of some Church of Scientology owned properties

The Fort Harrison Hotel (aka "Flag") with its parking garage and walkway over to the Super Power Building

The new walkway that was built over Fort Harrison Ave for foot traffic from Scientology's Ft Harrison Hotel to the Super Power building

The Super Power Building. Construction was started in 1998 and is still not complete 10 years later (2008)

The Coachman Building is the home for student courserooms, the Sea Org Recruit Office, the Central Files and Letter Registrar area, and several other office and management spaces. The Coachman Building includes the white 3-story building and the beige and red-brick buildings attached behind them.

The Clearwater Bank Building which is OSA's Public Relations space. In the back of the building is the Sea Org's dining hall and kitchens.

The Yatchsman is one of the Church of Scientology's hotels. This one is their cheapest one as it is furthest from the other Scientology buildings.

Sherwood Gardens is berthing/dormatories for Sea Org personnel.

Sea Org personnel are not allowed to travel independently from Sherwood Gardens to the downtown buildings, but must instead ride on the Scientology buses.

The Hacienda is berthing/dormatories for Sea Org personnel.