British Columbia will change its tax assessment system for farms to end an unloved split classification on certain farm properties.
Following a recommendation from the July report of its Farm Assessment Review Panel, the province said Friday it will eliminate the split classification of farm properties on B.C.’s Agriculture Land Reserve (ALR) that aren’t used for other purposes.
Also, the province said, it will end the split classification for non-ALR properties where at least 50 per cent of the property is in or contributes to farm production, or where 25 per cent is in production and meets a “higher income threshold.”
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The panel’s recommendations will be put in place for the 2010 assessment roll, the province said Friday. The panel had recommended that the “higher threshold,” where needed, be set at $10,000 for 2010 and at four times the minimum income threshold, or $14,000, for 2011 and beyond.
The province said the panel’s recommendation for the 2011 assessment roll “will be strongly considered by government for implementation over the next year.”
Under the province’s split-classification system for municipal tax assessment, portions of farm properties split into a residential class can be valued at $500,000 an acre or more in urban areas. Farmland has a much lower assessed value — and thus much lower property taxes.
The review panel, co-chaired by Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard and MLA John Rustad, was formally launched in February 2008 amid controversy, starting in Saanich, over a reassessment that put a number of farm properties into split residential/farmland classifications — thus taxing them at a higher rate than strictly “farm” property.
“These amendments will help foster continued growth in B.C.’s diverse agriculture sector,” Agriculture Minister Steve Thomson said in the province’s release Friday.
“This change is something the farming community has advocated for and we’re delighted it’s being implemented for the 2010 assessment roll,” said Garnet Etsell, chairman of the B.C. Agriculture Council and an Abbotsford-area poultry producer, in the province’s release.
“Modifying the split-classification assessment system will have a considerable impact, especially on smallholder farmers’ ability to make a living off the land, and help ensure a sustainable future for agriculture in this province,” he said.
