Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 150 - DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE › Division 308 - ASSESSMENT OF PROPERTY FOR TAXATION › Section 150-308-1010 - Farm Use Definitions, Inactivity Due to Illness, and Description of Lands in Non-Exclusive Farm Use

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
(1) This rule applies to land in
			 non-exclusive farm use zones that may qualify for special assessment under ORS
			 308A.068.
(2) Definitions:
(a) "Farm unit" means a farming enterprise
			 which includes all parcels being farmed by a single operator, whether the
			 operator owns or leases the farmland.
(b) "Farm use" is defined in ORS
			 308A.056 and applies to land
			 both inside and outside exclusive farm use zones.
(c) "Illness" means sickness, disease,
			 injury, or disorder of body or mind which prevents the farmer or immediate
			 family member from performing necessary farm operations.
(d) For purposes of subsection (2)(c):
			 "Immediate family member" means the farmer's spouse, children, or any person
			 for whom the farmer has a legal responsibility including, but not limited to,
			 guardianship of a dependent parent or child.
(e) "Land" means land in its natural state,
			 including any site developments (see ORS
			 307.010).
(A) "Land" includes all mines, minerals,
			 quarries, dikes, banks, drainage tile, water rights, and the like. Since ORS
			 308A.056 relates only to land
			 used for farming, any mineral reserves under the land continue to be assessed
			 at real market value as defined by ORS
			 308.205. Minerals include oil
			 and gas. Severed mineral interests, even though underlying zoned farmland, are
			 assessed to the owner in accordance with ORS
			 308.115.
(B) For the purpose of assessment of land in
			 farm use, "land" does not include buildings, structures, improvements (unless
			 their contribution is an integral part of the income attributable to the land),
			 machinery, equipment, land improvements for homesites, fixtures erected upon or
			 affixed to the land itself, or land used for a non-farm residence or other
			 non-farm purpose.
(f)
			 "Wasteland" includes but is not limited to swamps, rock outcroppings, gullies,
			 unusable overflow lands, and drainage ways.
(A) Wasteland does not include tillable lands
			 left idle or uncultivated and non-tillable grazing lands left unused when the
			 accepted farming practice is to utilize the land.
(B) Wasteland does include land described in
			 paragraph (2)(f)(A), if the owner can show that it is uneconomical to utilize
			 the land as part of the farm unit. Utilizing the land is uneconomical if the
			 cost to raise crops or animals exceeds the value of the crops or animals.
			 Examples in which it would not be economical to utilize the land include:
(i) An unfenced area of grazing land where
			 the annualized cost of fencing would exceed the income derived from the
			 land.
(ii) An area of a farm that
			 was only profitable through irrigation that is now unused because the cost of
			 electricity to operate the irrigation pumps increases expenses beyond the
			 income that can be derived from that area of land.
(C) Wasteland caused by the taxpayer, owner,
			 or person in control of the property is not entitled to special farm use
			 assessment. Examples of taxpayer-created wasteland include "mined out" land
			 where gravel, soil, or other minerals have been extracted, and mine tailing
			 refuse areas.