Utah farmers and ranchers are being advised by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation to check their 1988 tax notices to make sure the land values and assessments shown are truly in line with the value of their property.
Utah Farm Bureau president Ken Ashby said farmers and ranchers should carefully scrutinize their tax notices to make sure the land values on which the assessment is based are fair and in line with real property values in their area."Many farmers believe, because their lands are assessed under the guidelines of the Farmland Assessment Act of 1969, or greenbelt, it doesn't matter what the tax statements show. They couldn't be more wrong," Ashby said.
"If a farmer sells his land for other than agricultural purposes, he will be liable for a rollback tax which is the difference between what he paid under the greenbelt and what he would have paid at the market value for up to five years.
"If a farmer is not being accurately assessed now, he could likely be charged more than rightfully so when he sells his land at a later date," Ashby said.