Tax Policy Center Timber Taxation Property Tax Timberland Taxation and Property Tax Standing timber is generally now exempt from property taxes, by law or custom. Land remains on the property tax rolls. It is, however, just partial and discriminatory Georgism. Standing timber is exempt, but as soon as it is cut, milled, and hammered into buildings, it goes on the property tax rolls. The bias is apparent between capital in different forms.
Timber still yields some revenue when it is cut.
The idea has been to substitute a yield tax for the property tax. In practice, though, yield tax rates are much too low to be revenue- neutral. The present system works as though you exempted half the buildings in a city from a tax and raised the rate on the others. Here is the revenue result in one major California timber County, Mendocino. Neither is it because other values are high.