LEDUC, Alta. – After five years of discussions, several drafts and now
a series of rural consultations, MLA Richard Marz has a theory.
“We came to the conclusion, if you’re in the farming business you don’t
want to pay taxes.”
Marz, charged with improving the farm tax system, has been unable to
find a way to assess farm property that pleases any one.
“Nobody liked the current system and four other proposals,” said Marz,
chair of the MLA Farm Property Assessment Review Committee.
Read Also
Government, industry seek canola tariff resolution
Governments and industry continue to discuss how best to deal with Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, particularly canola.
From comments at a recent meeting, farm groups and municipalities don’t
like the latest proposal that would spread the tax pain to include
value-added and intensive livestock operations.
Reinhold Nordby, a Leduc County councillor, said the new system of
assessing a farm on the size of its operation would create more hassles
for municipal tax assessors, who will have to analyze each farm.
“It’s going to be a nightmare for our counties to implement this
thing,” said Nordby at a meeting to explain the proposed changes to
farm leaders and municipalities.
“We’re going to have to hire more assessors and send them out there
every year.”
A frustrated Marz, whose committee has spent five years trying to find
a more equitable farm tax scheme, said: “There are people under the
current system not paying their fair share. Did your municipality
forward any alternative solutions in the past five years?”
Marz said the new system was developed because of concerns that
intensive and value-added operations are not paying their share of
taxes.
Under the proposal there will be several key changes:
- If a farmer has a seed cleaning plant, the parts of the building and
operation used for farming would be classified as farming and not
taxed, but the buildings used for the commercial seed cleaning plant
would be taxed at a commercial rate.
- Woodlots will be included in the definition of a farming operation
for assessment. They will be assessed at productive value rather than
market value.
- Guidelines will be established on the types of property that may be
eligible for tax relief as conservation land.
The most controversial proposal is the “footprint” approach to the
assessment of farmland for intensive livestock and value-added
operations.
Opponents of large hog operations, feedlots, chicken barns and
greenhouses have long questioned why these multimillion dollar
operations were charged the same taxes as a grain farmer who created
fewer demands on rural roads and infrastructure.
The footprint assessment would be based on the number of animals or the
size of the housing required for the animals.
Under the proposal, during the first year municipal tax assessors would
visit each farm, gathering information on the size of each operation
and kinds of livestock. After that, assessors would add annual changes
to the assessment.
Members of the Alberta Assessors Association said they oppose the
footprint concept because of the increased workload it would create.
