Free: Contests & Raffles.
About the tax breaks.The land and timber are taxed seperately. Yes, there is a big excise tax on harvest, but each year there is still a small tax on the land, that is taxed less than the land your house sits on because it provides public benefits. The law doesn't specifically say how much each public benefit is worth, but the legislative findings in the law DO list them: Legislative findings. (1) The public welfare requires that this state's system for taxation of timber and forest lands be modernized to assure the citizens of this state and its future generations the advantages to be derived from the continuous production of timber and forest products from the significant area of privately owned forests in this state. It is this state's policy to encourage forestry and restocking and reforesting of such forests so that present and future generations will enjoy the benefits which forest areas provide in enhancing water supply, in minimizing soil erosion, storm and flood damage to persons or property, in providing a habitat for wild game, in providing scenic and recreational spaces, in maintaining land areas whose forests contribute to the natural ecological equilibrium, and in providing employment and profits to its citizens and raw materials for products needed by everyone.Therefore the state is justifying the tax break on timber and timberland. And therefore timberland owners are double-dipping into the public's pocket when they charge fees: they get part of their LAND taxbreak from providing "recreational spaces" and they can charge the public too. I say the system should have a value for each benefit, like 20% for recreation, and the timberland that charge get as smaller tax break than those that don't charge. Their are other loopholes too. Developements pioneered by Weyerhaeuser called "forest reserves" use the taxation loopholes to pay timberland rates on land that will never be managed for raw materials or logged. Hard to imagine logging trucks, slash piles, and helicopter spraying in gated communities of McMansions. They won't log or will log so rarely, they won't pay excise tax. Timberland should meet the intent of the law to get such a tax breaks.
That burns my ass, I am doing a green diamond unit, last week the crew left at 3 p.m I stayed and shovel logged till 7p.m when I get to the gate, there is 22 bags of household garbage right in the road.
Quote from: logger on July 15, 2012, 08:53:40 AMThat burns my ass, I am doing a green diamond unit, last week the crew left at 3 p.m I stayed and shovel logged till 7p.m when I get to the gate, there is 22 bags of household garbage right in the road.Well, it could be bear hunters trying to get the bears out in the open for the opener. Or it could be coyote hunters.
You guy's sure got it out for the so called "tax break", research it some more and see if it would be wise to take that ground out of timberland classification.