Essay on clean and green
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
ugreement with the federal government for at least three years preceding the application for preferential assessment, and meets one of the following descriptions:
Is comprised of at least 10 contiguous acres, including any farmstead land and woodlot.
Has an anticipated yearly gross income of at least $2,000 from the production of an agricultural commodity.
Is devoted to the development and operation of an alternative energy system, if a majority of the energy generated annually is utilized on the tract.
Agricultural Reserve
Land comprised of at least 10 contiguous acres, including any farmstead land and woodlot, that is free and open to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis for outdoor recreation or the enjoyment of scenic or natural beauty.
Forest Reserve
Land comprised of at least 10 contiguous acres, including any farmstead land, that is stocked by forest trees of any size and capable of producing timber or other wood products. Forest reserve land includes land that is rented to another person for the purpose of producing timber or other wood products.
Application
Landowners apply for the Clean and Green program through the assessor’s office of the county where the land is located. If the land is located in multiple counties, the application should be filed in the county to which the landowner pays property taxes. A standardized form is used across the state. Applications must be received by June 1 for the landowner to enroll in the program for the following tax year. A county board for assessment appeals may impose a fee of no more than $50 for processing an application.
Landowners are not required to reside on the land or live in the same county to which they submit their application. The person applying for preferential assessment must own all the land listed in the application; they may include contiguous tracts that would not qualify if considered individually. A landowner cannot apply to have only a portion of the land in a single tract qualify for the Clean and Green program. However, there can be separate eligible land uses on one tract, as long as the acreage identified for each particular land use meets the minimum criteria for that land use category.
Methods of Assessment
Clean and Green enables eligible land to be assessed at its use value instead of market value. Use value is a property’s value based only on the income the land would typically generate if used for agricultural, woodland, or pastureland purposes; it does not consider all of the property’s potential uses. The Clean and Green law states that the use value must reflect the potential production of the individual parcel, based upon soil capability. Use value will likely result in a lower tax assessment value than valuation on a fair market value basis.
The Department of Agriculture supplies county assessment offices with annual county-specific use values. The county has the option of implementing these values, or establishing its own values. If the county established values are lower, the county may apply the lower use values. The Department of Agriculture uses the following system to determine use values:
Agricultural use and agricultural reserve values are based upon the income approach for land appraisal. The formula takes into consideration the state crop profit margin percentage for corn production, an average value of crop receipts per acre by county, a Soil Index Factor, and an average capitalization rate.
Forest reserve values are based on the average value of timber in a particular county, or the average value of six timber types by county. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources calculates this value annually.
Based on annual reports conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the average reduction in fair market assessed value for enrollees is nearly 50 percent.
Leaving the Program
A landowner may remove their land from Clean and Green. In doing so, the landowner will be subject to 7 years of rollback taxes at 6% interest per year. The rollback tax is the difference between what was paid under Clean and Green versus what would have been paid had the property not been enrolled, plus 6% simple interest per year. Land that is removed from the program in this manner is not eligible to be subsequently re-enrolled by the same landowner.
Changing land from one land use classification to an-other does not trigger rollback taxes.
Sale or Division of Enro