agricultural use exemption

agricultural use exemption

In ad valorem taxes, an exemption that allows agricultural land to be valued at its current usage,rather than the possibly much more expensive highest and best use valuation.Oftentimes,the appraised value is then further reduced by a certain percentage to reach an assessed value, upon which the taxes are based. (Many say this is done as an incentive to maintain green spaces and agricultural land rather than developing it in order to generate money to pay extremely high real estate taxes. Others say the exemption is a result of powerful agricultural and timber lobbies.)