Anyone use the Colorado State Forestry Program to reduce Property Taxes?

[npaden]

I'm working through getting my place in Colorado setup with a formal Forestry Plan with the State of Colorado Forest Service and was just going to check if anyone on here has gone through this.

https://csfs.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CSFS_Forest_Ag_Program_Sept_2018.pdf

On my larger piece of property it is showing as agriculture use already but I have a bunch of 40 acre tracts that are theoretically subdivision property that the assessor won't just easily classify as agriculture use even though I have it certified through the Farm Service Agency.

The Forestry Plan is supposed to solve that for me and I'm working through the hoops on it and so far it seems like it isn't going to be terrible. I will have to annually harvest wood products from the property but as long as I'm following the plan it doesn't sound like it is going to mean that I need to be out there 24/7 chopping down trees or anything. It sounds like if I pull 3 or 4 cords of firewood off and sell them I should be good. I would like to do some thinning and mulching but that doesn't end up with a wood product so even if I have that in the plan I still need to have some wood coming off in addition to that.

Was just curious if anyone else has looked into it or is using it.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[marksjeep]

You might consider speaking with your accountant or a tax pro (if you haven't already) familiar with timber harvest and reclassification of the property. We picked up an adjoining hay field a few years ago. The county required documentation (schedule F, hay sales receipts, etc.) of agricultural use to maintain ag tax status. The CSFS form just says "maintain records...for tax purposes" which might include filing schedule T or other tax implications. Just thinking out loud. Good luck!

 

[npaden]

I have other agricultural property here in Texas and I do file a Schedule F for Farming. I probably could have used that to scam the property tax assessor in Colorado who said they would need to see a Schedule F or something similar to prove I had income from agriculture but since none of that income was from Colorado I didn't think that was appropriate.

One drawback would be that this might trigger me to have to file a Colorado income tax return for income that I would earn in Colorado but I don't think it is going to be very much and should easily be offset by the savings in property taxes.

I did call the county assessor and she said that as long as I have an approved Forestry Plan from the State Forestry Department and I follow that plan I should be good to classify everything as agriculture from her perspective.

It doesn't seem like it is used very often. Per the tax assessor there is only 1 other property owner in Las Animas county that has an approved Forestry Plan.

 

[npaden]

Probably the biggest decision that I have ahead of me is whether to leave well enough alone and keep the 440 acres that is already classified as agriculture use out of the Forestry Management Plan. That's in a couple different pieces a 280 piece and a 160 acre piece.

I actually just signed a contract for another of the 40 acre "subdivision" tracts to get me up to 537 acres of those. No houses, not even electricity, but because of some developers grand idea back in 1996 I'm having to deal with way higher property taxes as a result. I'm not sure you could build a house on a few of the tracts even if you wanted to they are so steep and have no road access. That's the way they are classified on the property tax roll though so that's why I'm having to jump through hoops on the Forestry Plan.

Really doesn't seem like the worst idea in the world though. Might even get some help from NRCS through their EQUIP program for some of it.