Farm Assessment, Farmland Preservation - What’s the Difference?

Farm Assessment is a preferential tax treatment for actively farmed property. A
landowner must annually apply for farm assessment. Anyone receiving farm
assessment will pay regular property tax on their residence. The land devoted to
agricultural use and production will receive a lower tax rate. There are minimum
agricultural income requirements to qualify, and you must have at least five acres to
qualify.

Farmland Preservation entails the placement of an easement on farmland that
permanently restrict the farm for agricultural uses. The restriction runs with the land of
privately owned and taxed property. It is still the landowner’s responsibility to qualify the land for farm assessment each year.

To date there are over 140 preserved farms in Morris County and over 2,800 farms in
New Jersey encompassing 250,000 acres of land, that will help ensure New Jersey’s
agricultural industry remains viable long into the future.

Farm Assessment Changes for 2015 and beyond

Bills S-539 and A-3090 were signed into law in April 2013 that raises the minimum
income requirements to qualify for farmland tax assessment. Instead of a minimum of
$500 of agricultural gross sales, a minimum of $1,000 of gross sales is needed for the
first five acres of land. Each additional acre continues to need $5 of gross sales above
the initial $1,000 for the first five acres. Example: 10 acres of farm assessed land needs
a minimum of $1,025 of gross sales. A 100-acre farm needs $1,475.

The most recent number of acres qualifying for farmland assessment was close
to 948,000, about 30 percent higher than for official farms counted by the USDA.