Plans for Change in Current Use Program

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Created on Thursday, 17 April 2014 18:41

Written by Katrina Floranza

NORTHEAST KINGDOM- The Vermont Current Use Program has been in effect since 1978 when it was passed under the Use Value Appraisal Law. Now, the Vermont State Senate is looking to find a way to prevent landowners from taking advantage of the program.

This program allows landowners to pay their taxes on the land's agricultural or forest use instead of having the landowners pay taxes on market value. The main objectives of this program were to keep the production of Vermont's agricultural and forest land, obtain greater equity in property taxation on such land, and to help slow the development of these lands.

However, the issue with the way the program works is that some of the landowners "park" their land in the program until they can sell it, taking advantage of the tax rate. In order to prevent this, the State Senate plans to increase the withdrawal fee. By doing so, the Senate believes that any person who chooses to withdraw from the program after less than 10 years will be taxed 10% of fair market value.

There are about 17,000 properties of land that are enrolled in this program. That number represents about one third of the total land area in Vermont. Some farmers agree with the Senate's proposal, because they feel as though current landowners must remain honest in order to keep the Current Use Program continuing.

Jenny Nelson, Owner of Home Acres Farm, says, "It's to the land owner's benefit. It's also to the benefit of the state. It's for everybody's benefit." Nelson also says that Home Acres Farm saves over $4,000 through the current use program. "We were able to take advantage of a lower tax rate, because of Current Use and it's good business since."