🚀 go-pugleaf

Robert Plamondon wrote:
> 
> In article <x/Q1z0O5IgPS091yn@teleport.com> larryc@teleport.com (Larry Caldwell) writes:
> 
> >They get a break on most of their property taxes, in exchange for harvest
> >taxes when they log a tract.  They get a 30% tax credit from the state on
> >any out-of-pocket land management expenses, like brush clearing or
> >replanting, but they only get to take a third of that credit in any year,
> >so it makes sense to develop an ongoing program.  They can clear non-
> >commercial species and sell them for firewood with no additional tax
> >penalty over the normal income tax.
> 
> So what do you think of the current plan to tax standing timber at
> the current lower property tax rates?  The reports I read made it
> unclear whether the severance tax was being eliminated altogether, or
> run as a parallel program with higher taxes.  Either way, it
> discriminates against small landowners.
> 
> I had always thought that the timber deferral/severance tax system
> was a great idea, as it didn't penalize people for simply having
> trees on their property, and only taxed them in years when they
> actually sold trees (and thus had income to cover the taxes).  Big
> Timber doesn't see the difference, since they cut all the time, but
> taxing the value of standing timber is going make all the small
> landowners cut their trees early to pay their taxes.  Most people
> can't afford to pay taxes today for timber they're going to cut in
> twenty years.
> 
>         -- Robert
> --
> Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
> 36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
> robert@plamondon.com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
> http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp
I grew up in the Humboldt County, California.  There used to be a tax on
standing timber.  Each year, my father had to come up with an inventory
report stating how much standing "inventory" they had out in the woods. 
The company that he worked for paid taxes on it.  The more inventory,
the more taxes.............the less inventory, the less
taxes.........hmmmmmm.
They finally did away with this system bacause it rewarded cutting to
the maximum.

Mike Stephens
-- 
These thoughts are mine....I do not represent my employer.