Agricultural Exemption denial letters (Miami)

[Privatetreaty]

There is a very good possibility that you will receive a denial letter regarding your Agricultural Exemption, if you are Miami-Dade County.

It seems the county has sent 1,600 denial letters, mostly to "Horse Country" property owners. Most of the letters state that not enough information was provided with the application.

I heard thru the grape vine that Frank Jacobs is trying to eliminate the agricultural exemption to those in the horse related business. Yet, I have clients that are growers and have nothing to do with horses and they have received the denial letter as well.

Mr. Jacobs has made this the year of changes. First, Agricultural Exemptions are no longer automatic, like Homestead. Now this.

I'm attempting to get more information. It was extremely difficult today to get through to people I know at the AG, due to the number of calls placed by worried property owners. I got thru to someone that couldn't talk because the place was swarming with "ears".

If you received a denial letter from Miami-Dade County and need more information, please feel free to send me a PM.

[Monty]

For those of us in different states - Please ,explain !
Exemption from what ? Taxes, conditional use , use of land ?
If you were up here - I would guess zoning change and the developers won :roll:

[pnalley]

We have something that sounds similar here in Georgia.

It's called Current Use Valuation and under it are Conservation use & transitional properties.

Consv. Use is for farms.

I'm on the board of assessors in my home county and we frequently ask for more information. When people turn in their application if they will explain all the ag uses, include photo's as well as receipts for ag stuff (fertilizer, feed, hay twine, labor etc) they usually get approved right off the bat. Sometimes we have to have more info on how ownership is held, are they a citizen, family farm corp. etc. Our program is a good one, but people usually do not read the laws and then do their homework to make sure their application has everything needed.

In Georgia you enter a 10 yr covenant in which for a rather substantial property tax break you agree to keep your property in some sort of ag use. If you breach your covenant the penalties are severe. But if you don't plan to develop it's a great program.

For instance I have 16 acres and a manufactured home. My taxes w/o conservation use would be approx. $1500, with conservation use my property taxes are less then $300. Well worth a 10 year covenant to me!

[Monty]

Thank you for the explaining -
Sure wish we had something like that here - It is assessed according to use and sales here .But , we aren't considered a farm - even with 5 horses in the yard ! You have to prove you make a living or income !

[Privatetreaty]

Hey Monty,

In Florida, in order to qualify for AG (agriculture) tax relief, you must prove it is AG business related land use and not a "hobby farm".

You could have both AG and Homestead exemptions in FL.
There are no AG covenants in the State of Florida.
AG laws vary from state to state.

The land zoning impacts the amount of non-AG allocation towards the house. If the zoning is agriculture, 1 acre is deducted for the house.
Leaving 4 acres that could qualify for AG exemption.


I'll give you a typical Horse Country example:
5 acre parcel with a house
10 stall barn and completely fenced and cross fenced
zoned agricultural
Assessed at $300,000 per acre.
1 acre will not qualify for AG (house)

Possible AG Exemption:
4 acres x $300,000= $1,200,000 AG tax exempt
$1,200,000 x .0213163 (millage rate)= $25,580 tax savings


In your case Monty, please check applicable Minnesota State Law at:
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/469/1811.html

.

[Monty]

:lol: I am next door in Wisconsin ;-)
We are zoned Ag2 - any amount of land with house - Ag1 is open ag land -
But thank you for the info-

FYI - 2 bedroom,1 bath - cottage ( small ) house ,,garage, 2 run-ins,3 1/4 acres - We were assessed last year at $98,000 by the
state =Equalized market value - they just did a reval (first in 5 years)- now it is $163,800! :-?
We bought it in 1970 for $16,600! :shock:

It is the land that is skyhigh - nearly $90,000
Oh - we have a well and septic tank !

[Privatetreaty]

Sorry Monty,
Two glasses of wine at dinner this evening with Lori and I'm an airhead.

Okay, Wisconsin Agricultural Exemption Guidelines:
http://www.dor.state.wi.us/ra/05sumrpt.pdf


Please let me know if you need additional information.

[pnalley]

Those of you in states other then GA.

Are you taxed on the Market value of your property or another amount (assessed value)?

In GA
House market value 100,000 x40 (assessment level)=40,000 x mill rate= amount owed before homestead is subtracted.

[reuben T]

:shock: glad I don't live there, tax here based on assessed value, which last i knew was less than $500- ac for our place. sure glad we're out in the wild woods with a lot of acres where land use isn't questioned, we're in a special catagory for farms and woodland where we're supposed to make at least $4000 a year off the land in ag or wood products and not divide it, saves about $30 in tax, it's around $150 for 80 acres instead of 180 like it was before we signed onto it. i know, it's a terrible diference from what yer talking about. I've probably sold about $10,000 in wood products in the last year, plan to do a lot faster business than that in fresh food, maybe that much in a month befor long i hope.
right now I'm logging one day in two weeks and doing veggie activities the rest of the time. squeaking by on very little $$ for now.

[motorgypsy]

South Carolina just uses a reduced percent on the value and you are supposed to make a profit of a certain amount to qualify.

I do know a person in FL who keeps an ag exemption with just a horse or two - no business. Don't know how he manages - friends in high places???

[Carol Nelson]

I just got both my ag exemption and my homestead credit last year...takes a year to go into effect. Texas has both. Saves me over $1000 a year in taxes.
Property here is taxed on assessed value. We live in the fifth poorest county in Texas (after the border counties) which benefits us in taxes, but services are not the best. I just added ten unimproved acres to my original ten...annual taxes on those ten acres are 5.31 a year...yeah, made me happy to see that.
To get ag exemption you must have over ten acres of land, run at least five cows on it, or if you have a horse breeding operation, you must have at least four broodmares and stock to sell. Don't need stallions.
Having the exemptions, I pay almost half on my twenty acres of what my daughter pays on her nice little house in San Antonio sitting on a postage-stamp-sized city lot. Of course, she gets all the bells and whistles in services, but she also pays for living in a top school district. For a single girl with no kids, doesn't help her out much.

[DebbieS]

Here, to be zoned ag you have to have over 40 acres. We have 39.97 :( So, we are zoned residential (we have one small barn and an outdoor arena, house a separate garage 3 acre yard, the rest is pasture, 5 horses). We have freinds with a couple thousand acres and our taxes are the same as theirs (about $2600/year)

In 2000, we had a tornado take 40% of our house roof, ripped down our entire hayshed, and lots of misc things. Insurance paid for the new roof on our house, leakage, etc but would not pay for the hayshed because we didn't have an ag policy. Didn't think we'd need one when we're not zoned ag....

[Privatetreaty]

Oh my Debbie, I wonder if there is a way to fix this?

Can you apply for a variance, waiver or special consideration?
Can you purchase a couple of feet from an abutting property owner, in order to make up the difference?

[DebbieS]

No, the county does this on purpose. Whenever a big property is sub-divided, they always split them up like this. My neighbors bought 2 of them when this sub-division was put in. We got here too late. All of our neighbors have about the same or less (there were some 4 acre pieces done too)

I do have another neighbor with 800+ acres, but our property was once part of theirs many years ago, before we bought it. We've asked if they want to sell some, but so far, no. A few years ago, we wanted to sell 1-4 acres to my parents, and the county said no. They are really picky. The 4 acre pieces are about a mile up the road and they stopped it there.

Hubby wants to move to WY someday (about 20 miles away) where the taxes are low and the properties are big :D

[DebbieS]

Having the exemptions, I pay almost half on my twenty acres of what my daughter pays on her nice little house in San Antonio sitting on a postage-stamp-sized city lot. Of course, she gets all the bells and whistles in services, but she also pays for living in a top school district. For a single girl with no kids, doesn't help her out much.

Carol, I know what you mean. We have 2 business properties in town (just buildings and lots) and our taxes are about the same as our 40 acres...

[Privatetreaty]

The COUNTY said no, when you wanted to sell off a portion?
I would ask them to produce the applicable State Statues.

Are there deed restrictions or covenant to properties in this area?

If none of the above apply and this is a county mandate, they must have an appeal process in place for such matters.


Do the math. Maybe all you need is one lineal foot.
Go back to the guy with the 400 acres.
Maybe he's willing to sell you one lineal foot?