Family land trust tax question

[Jtrage]

My grandfather has about 120 acres. My grandmother passed away at the beginning of the year. As we expected my grandfather has gone down pretty fast.

About 6 or so months ago the land was put in a trust with my dad and aunt as trustees. They are the only siblings. They get along about the land for the most part. My aunt has been the one "handling" all the bills since she is in town where my grandfather is. I say that real loosely.

I don't know how all this works or what the proper steps were but when she got the taxes the previous Ag exemption was not carried over. Obviously there is a significant difference. I am not sure how long she has had the tax statements. She has said that she called the tax office and that the tax office claimed to have sent the exemption forms. She said she didn't get them. She now tells me that the tax office has said it is too late to do anything.

I am going out to the land this week so I was going to go to the tax office. A couple questions;

Is it too late to change this now for the ag exemption?
Should the ag exemption have carried over into the trust or was that something that they or their lawyer missed?
Anything else we can do for this tax statement?

thanks

[phibob808]

My grandfather has about 120 acres. My grandmother passed away at the beginning of the year. As we expected my grandfather has gone down pretty fast.

About 6 or so months ago the land was put in a trust with my dad and aunt as trustees. They are the only siblings. They get along about the land for the most part. My aunt has been the one "handling" all the bills since she is in town where my grandfather is. I say that real loosely.

I don't know how all this works or what the proper steps were but when she got the taxes the previous Ag exemption was not carried over. Obviously there is a significant difference. I am not sure how long she has had the tax statements. She has said that she called the tax office and that the tax office claimed to have sent the exemption forms. She said she didn't get them. She now tells me that the tax office has said it is too late to do anything.

I am going out to the land this week so I was going to go to the tax office. A couple questions;

Is it too late to change this now for the ag exemption?
Should the ag exemption have carried over into the trust or was that something that they or their lawyer missed?
Anything else we can do for this tax statement?

thanks

Once the land was put in a trust, a new ag application would have been sent out. Even though nothing as far as ownership has changed, there was a deed change so a new ag application should have been mailed out and returned. The deadline here in our county is April 30. When did the trust get filed? im the ag appraiser for our county so if you have any questions then pm me and ill give you my cell number.

[SmTx]

I inherited land this year and have to re-up the AG in January.

Tax office sent the paper work but it came with a big disclaimer that "We send this out as a courtesy but it is still your obligation to file(if you want to keep AG) even if we don't send the paper work"

Was the land in AG? My now limited knowledge is it should still be good for this year if so.

Worst case scenario is pay the taxes on the 120 acres at the non-ag rate and give thanks it's still cheaper than purchasing 120 acres

[Jtrage]

Once the land was put in a trust, a new ag application would have been sent out. Even though nothing as far as ownership has changed, there was a deed change so a new ag application should have been mailed out and returned. The deadline here in our county is April 30. When did the trust get filed? im the ag appraiser for our county so if you have any questions then pm me and ill give you my cell number.

Thanks. Let me get a little more information from my aunt. I believe the trust was February or March. She said she did not receive an application but that doesn't mean she didn't. The land is in Cherokee County.

[phibob808]

Thanks. Let me get a little more information from my aunt. I believe the trust was February or March. She said she did not receive an application but that doesn't mean she didn't. The land is in Cherokee County.

if it was February or march, it should remain in ag for the rest of 2018 and you should have to reapply for 2019.

[Jtrage]

if it was February or march, it should remain in ag for the rest of 2018 and you should have to reapply for 2019.

My aunt just got back to me. It was Dec. 2017. So, I assume there is nothing that can be done this year. Or are there exceptions? I only got in on this over the weekend.

[texansfan]

It is up to the county and what they want to do
Is the land really in ag production or do you only want to get a tax break?

The ag exemption is there because the county figures that you'll pay your share of taxes through whatever you produce from the land
If you don't produce anything that is taxable then the county is SOL on those unrecovered revenues

[M16]

It is up to the county and what they want to do
Is the land really in ag production or do you only want to get a tax break?

The ag exemption is there because the county figures that you'll pay your share of taxes through whatever you produce from the land
If you don't produce anything that is taxable then the county is SOL on those unrecovered revenues

Not true. They assign a productivity value. So they get there money no matter what. I must be a bad rancher. Never got close to their overly optimistic productivity assessment.

[Jtrage]

Tax exemption of course. It has always been for the timber management. My dad and I have been able to put more time into it over the last several years.