(a) Provided that an appropriate application for exemption is filed within 90 days from the first day of the month following the month in which the property was acquired or by February 15 of the following calendar year, whichever occurs earlier, any tax or penalty or interest imposed upon:

(1) Property owned by any organization qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans’ organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption that is acquired by that organization during a given calendar year, after the lien date but prior to the first day of the fiscal year commencing within that calendar year, when the property is of a kind that would have been qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans’ organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption if it had been owned by the organization on the lien date, shall be canceled or refunded.

(2) Property owned by any organization that would have qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans’ organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption had the organization been in existence on the lien date, that was acquired by it during that calendar year after the lien date in that year but prior to the commencement of that fiscal year, and of a kind that presently qualifies for the exemption and that would have so qualified for that fiscal year had it been owned by the organization on the lien date and had the organization been in existence on the lien date, shall be canceled or refunded.

(3) Property acquired after the beginning of any fiscal year by an organization qualified for the college, cemetery, church, religious, exhibition, veterans’ organization, tribal housing, or welfare exemption and the property is of a kind that would have qualified for an exemption if it had been owned by the organization on the lien date, whether or not that organization was in existence on the lien date, shall be canceled or refunded in the proportion that the number of days for which the property was so qualified during the fiscal year bears to 365.

(b) Eighty-five percent of any tax or penalty or interest thereon imposed upon property that would be entitled to relief under subdivision (a) or Section 214.01, except that an appropriate application for exemption was not filed within the time required by the applicable provision, shall be canceled or refunded provided that an appropriate application for exemption is filed after the last day on which relief could be granted under subdivision (a) or Section 214.01.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), any tax or penalty or interest thereon exceeding two hundred fifty dollars ($250) in total amount shall be canceled or refunded provided it is imposed upon property entitled to relief under subdivision (b) for which an appropriate claim for exemption has been filed.

(d) With respect to property acquired after the beginning of the fiscal year for which relief is sought, subdivisions (b) and (c) shall apply only to that pro rata portion of any tax or penalty or interest thereon that would have been canceled or refunded had the property qualified for relief under paragraph (3) of subdivision (a).

(Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 316, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2004.)