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Property tax agricultural exemption for bees

80K views 69 replies 42 participants last post by  snl 
#1 ·
I had a person call me last year and ask how many hives it would take to maintain an ag exemption on her property.

I do not know the answer.

If anyone else has some idea on this - I sure am curious too.
 
#33 · (Edited by Moderator)
Re: Property taxes

In Georgia you are entitled to preferential tax assessment to maintain land for bona fide ag. purposes. The primary use of land which is good faith commercial production from or on the land of ag products, including apiaian products. You can get conservation use breaks for not developing in any way your property also, leave it as scrub or woods. if 2 hives on 1 acre of your land provides ANY amount of income, you can qualify on that 1 acres IF the property is used only for ag production purposes. If you breach the covenant during the 10 year time frame, large penalties. Take any tax break you can qualify for. We are overtaxed due to ridiculous spending on pet projects, it is not my fault that i take the break, it is the politicians faults for overspending that make my needing to take the break necessary to financially survive.
 
#34 ·
Re: Property taxes

Rather than speculate or guess, just Google "Texas Tax Code Chapter 23"

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.23.htm

You will find in Sec. 23.51 the following definition:

(2) "Agricultural use" includes but is not limited to the following activities... ...raising or keeping livestock; raising or keeping exotic animals for the production of human food...

...The term also includes the use of land to raise or keep bees for pollination or for the production of human food or other tangible products having a commercial value, provided that the land used is not less than 5 or more than 20 acres."

Your Application for 1-d-1 Open-Space Agricultural Appraisal includes the following statement:

"Agricultural use includes, but is not limited to, the following activities: (1) cultivating the soil; (2) producing crops for human food, animal feed, or planting
seed or for the production of fibers; (3) floriculture, viticulture and horticulture; (4) raising or keeping livestock; (5) raising or keeping exotic animals or fowl
for the production of human food or fiber, leather, pelts or other tangible products having a commercial value; (6) planting cover crops or leaving land idle for
the purpose of participating in a governmental program provided the land is not used for residential purposes or a purpose inconsistent with agricultural use
or leaving the land idle in conjunction with normal crop or livestock rotation procedures; (7) wildlife management; and (8) beekeeping."
 
#35 ·
Re: Property taxes

The original case law governing ag exemption in Texas for bees is here:

"Pizzitola v. Galveston County Central Appraisal District, 808 S.W. 2d 244 (Tex. App.-Houston[1st Dist.] 1991, no writ history). In this case the court starts by stating, "This case presents the question of whether a bee is like a cow." The court held that bees are not like cows. And why does this matter? Because the Plaintiff was contending that they were entitled to an "open-space valuation" on their property taxes for the 63.17 acres of their property because the entire acreage was used by the beekeeping operation (and their bees). They wanted the same tax rate ranchers get for land used to graze cattle. They called as an expert witness an entomologist with Texas A&M, who agreed that bees need land for forage. The court agreed with the Appraisal District, who had determined that the three acres around the hives and honey house qualified, but not the rest. The court held that, "the tending of the bees--the preparation, maintenance of the hives and equipment, and the honey extraction--took place on the three acres, not on the Property [as a whole]." Id. at 250."

Since then, the 2011 Texas legislature add some language apparently to help us. See this:
http://tais.tamu.edu/newsletter/pdf/August 2011 Newsletter.pdf
 
#39 ·
We don't have local folks to chat up...having said that I would be very interested in having a look at your submission with details on how much of what supports "x" number of bees etc. I believe the bees will be fine even without our efforts as we are sandwiched between 4 golf courses and are but a stones throw from planted commercial vegetable, blueberry and cranberry farms. We have 2 local farmers markets for selling product plus I have a business that is interested in purchasing all the bottled honey we can produce. I am also planning on making flavour infusions of the honey plus combining some with herbs as healing salves. I am new to this forum and don't know if it supports private messages.

Today I am trying to locate a local of white clover seed to top dress our fields. We have already planted fruit trees, seed fruits, climbing roses, clematis, honey suckle, ornamental flowering trees etc.

Looking forward to getting more info to beef up my submission:)
 
#47 ·
Looking forward to getting more info to beef up my submission:)
In bc it's pretty simple to get the ag class taxes. If you have less than 2 acres, show $10,000 in receipts for produced product. From 2 to 10 acres, show $2500 in receipts. Above 10 acres, it becomes a percentage of the assessed value.

Bees and honey both qualify.

Wife got a new job, so we will be moving up island in a few weeks. When we buy up there, we are seriously looking at getting a plot between 2 and 10 acres. With a dozen hives it wont be hard to do $2500 a year in sales, which will put us over the threshold.
 
#40 · (Edited)
Re: Property taxes

> Anyone live in CT who has looked into this?

The following relates to sales tax exemptions in CT for farmers, but it clearly defines what it takes to be eligible, and specifically includes bees:

http://www.ct.gov/DRS/cwp/view.asp?A=1511&Q=267156

As for property tax in CT regarding bees, read this document:
http://www.ct.gov/doag/lib/doag/marketing_files/complete_490guide_cfba.pdf

See the top left column of page 10 for a definition of "farming" which does include "bees". Once you have the document open, "Control-F" should open a search function allowing you to search for references to bees.

And for more documents on this issue, try typing or pasting the following into Google:

"bees property tax site:www.ct.gov"

:D
 
#44 ·
Re: Property taxes

I live in the Texas Hill Country and I have 18 ac, which is within the window of 5-20 ac Texas requires for agricultural use with honeybees. I am in my 3rd year and have the documentation. I have been in touch with the county appraiser and the Texas Appiary Inspector. I currently have 12 hives. There is no question of whether i will qualify or not. The question is "degree of intensity". I can't seem to find any information on those who have successfully obtained their exemption.
 
#48 ·
Thank you for that info. We have 2.5 acres in Vancouver and are in the process of developing hives. We will have 5 this year and plan to add another 5 next year. We have an outlet arranged for the sale of any honey we harvest from our hives.

If things go well we would like to work at developing skills to create nucs and raise queens so we can help get hives into backyards:)
 
#49 ·
If you are in Vancouver proper, zoning may come into play and be a problem. If your 2.5 acres is in the ALR, it's real easy. In our case, we are currently on .25 acres zoned R3, which does not permit agriculture, so we couldn't apply for the exemption even if we had the $10K in honey sales. Interestingly tho, we contacted the city before getting bees, and none of the bylaws prevent having them. From the city perspective, bees are not an 'agricultural animal'. They have a very specific list of animals not permitted in residential zoning areas. Bees are not on that list, and, are not animals, they are insects. But, on the website for the assessment folks, apiculture is right there at the top of the list for qualifying endeavors.

Here is a link with the relavent information.

http://www.bcassessment.ca/public/Fact Sheets/Classifying Farm Land.aspx
 
#51 ·
Nature Coast, thanks for that briefing. That was illuminating. For two reasons, both because I learned a few things - and because I appreciate now how different each state's requirements are.

Do you have, or do you know how to get a copy of the briefing charts themselves? The audio is very hard to follow.

I would like to send the briefing charts to my county assessor.

I think it is interesting that tax assessors have standards for how many cows per acre and how many chickens per acre, but they don't have a standard for bees. We beeks need to band together and help to establish some standards.

In fact, in the breifing he talks about class of soil from A=best to E=worst. The tax assessor recognizes that in poor soil types, the number of cows the land can support on an acre is less than on good soil. Same thing applies to bees.

We beeks know that you can't put 100 hives on 5 acres. Even the richest land can't support that many. Likewise we know that 2 hives on 25 acres is not enough either. We need to establish some ballpark numbers and then go gather some real data to support our numbers.

Once we have that data we can take our case to the tax assessors and help them to establish some standards for beekeeping AG exemptions.
 
#68 ·
I think it is interesting that tax assessors have standards for how many cows per acre and how many chickens per acre, but they don't have a standard for bees. We beeks need to band together and help to establish some standards.
well there already are some standers if your trying to make money from bees. check out Fl. right to farm act. And it's not an exemption it's a land classification





We beeks know that you can't put 100 hives on 5 acres.
Sure ya can if your just selling bees and don't care about honey and feed a lot
 
#54 ·
With cattle etc they are usually restricted to a certain grazing area...hence the density guidelines. With bees someone can can have a small plot for their hives but the bees can range unrestricted for miles. I guess for guidelines they would have to assess the forage potential within the bee fly radius. Also it seems some supplement feed as not all are keeping them for honey (some raise them for sale like stock and others rent them out much of the year). Unlike most livestock it seems if bees feel that their living circumstances are inadequate they simply up and leave to better places:)
 
#55 ·
Re: Tax break

Hi, Bee Wrangler here. I just found out that the land we are going to buy will qualify for Ag exemption even though it is only 5 acres. There is a house on it, but we have Homestead in another county so they will not disallow for this structure. They did tell me we have to have one hive per acre and that it would be 5 years before we would be able to qualify for Ag exempt. The good thing is as soon as we purchase the land we can apply and
the time starts counting down even while we are prepping the land.
 
#56 ·
Re: Tax break

We now have farm status on our land. Apiculture was an accepted farm product...honey, bees, wax, propolis, pollen etc. We have 15 hives...if all survive the winter which is not likely:( For us the requirement was , enough land with an approved farm plan and enough income from the products to maintain the farm status (based on sales not net). I started the hives last spring, applied in August and will see my first tax relief this year. I have to pay the first tax instalment in full (it is half of last years) and then I should see a reduction by the second instalment in July.
Where I am the farm status area of ones property only applies to the part of the property actually being "farmed". The assessed property value of farm land is less than residential or commercial; the taxes are based on overall assessed value...here's hoping the significant reduction in assessed value will be reflected in my second tax instalment come July 2014.

Good luck with your endeavours..both bee and farm:)
 
#59 ·
Re: Tax break

I just got an exemption on my property taxes for my bees. Troy in Florida each county sets their own guidelines. Here is a link to the application for Duval County, Bee yards is clearly listed. http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/property/forms/current/dr482_f.pdf

I had to turn in a plot plan and a business plan with my application. I only got the exemption for 1 1/2 acres not my whole parcel of land but, every little bit helps. When I first gave the property appraisers office a call they where not sure I qualified but, after they came out and looked at the honey house and the hives and the revenue for the past three years my application was approved. They said I was only the second person to apply for the exemption for bees.
 
#65 ·
Re: Tax break

The cost of inner city hoodlums is nothing compared to the corporate wellfare that our country provides. Taxes lost on the $3 trillion safe in banks offshore. Hoodlums are not the problem!
Corporations are nothing but thousands of individual shareholders who own stock in a company. Most of the shareholders of these multinational companies are the pension plans of individuals and unions that people like us belong to. The less these corporations pay in taxes the higher the value of my 401 k.
 
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