The taxman cometh

Boyd

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Read "The Soprano State". The authors devote a number of pages to the prominent public figures who operate "farms". They even mentioned one person who was running for President (Forbes I think?) who was embarrassed when this came to light and had to amend his tax return.
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Coastal NJ
Boyd said:
Read "The Soprano State". The authors devote a number of pages to the prominent public figures who operate "farms". They even mentioned one person who was running for President (Forbes I think?) who was embarrassed when this came to light and had to amend his tax return.
Click to expand...

We had a Guvnor, Christy Whitman, that does this. She was also the head of the Fed EPA at one time.
 
skip3

skip3

Explorer
Nov 21, 2009
213
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cc tx, Green Bank Nj
I think you are forgetting why that law was put into place, it was to slow down the rate of farms being turned into subdivisions. To many farmers found it was easier to sell out than keep up the day to day fight. I can sub my 25 acres into 8 different lots, and that is what I will do if the tax burden becomes more than it is worth to me.......
 
Boyd

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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From "The Soprano State", starting on page 27. There's more but I got tired of typing. :)
_________________________________________________________________________

Whitman got national attention for her commitment to stop urban sprawl by buying open space for the state. Alas, it was not what it seemed. In 1998, when voters agreed to dedicate a portion of the sales tax to land preservation, Whitman envisioned a million acres would be preserved. Nine years later, 150,000 acres of farmland and 250,000 acres of open space were all the state had amassed. But many connected landowners got rich along the way, and the Garden State Preservation Trust ran out of money two years ahead of time.

Reporter Alan Guenther, then of the Gannett State Bureau, surveyed twenty three towns in nine counties and found that local elected and appointed officials with influence over how farmland preservation money is spend had their own land in the program. In New Jersey, land owners are paid to preserve their land from development.

In Republican-leaning Burlington County, Guenther found a proposal to spend $10 million to preserve 2,852 acres in the Pinelands that already had protection. What Guenther also found was that a local zoning official and member of the Pinelands Commission owned property at the proposed site.
....................................

There also was a peculiar loophole build into the land preservation law. Local and county governments could declare a "hardship" case in the event of "death or incapacitating illness of the owner or other serious hardship or bankruptcy". In New Jersey, that meant they could adjust decisions for political reasons.

Another way New Jersey favors the rich is by granting big tax breaks to owners of farms as small as five acres with revenue as little as $500 a year.

"Some of the biggest abusers are large corporations and developers," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club wrote in an op-ed piece. "The largest 'farmer' in central New Jersey is Thompson Land Company, a land speculator and developer, and the largest 'farmer' in Hunterdon County is Toll Brothers, a huge home construction company.

"The lawns in front of Johnson and Johnson's plant and Roche Pharmaceuticals in Brancburg, Merck's headquarters in Readington and the Merrill LYnch and Bristol-Meyers Squibbin Hopewell are all considered farmland by the farmland assessment program.
_________________________________________________________________________
 
46er

46er

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Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
skip3 said:
I think you are forgetting why that law was put into place, it was to slow down the rate of farms being turned into subdivisions. To many farmers found it was easier to sell out than keep up the day to day fight. I can sub my 25 acres into 8 different lots, and that is what I will do if the tax burden becomes more than it is worth to me.......
Click to expand...

Not forgetting anything. The changes are long overdue to punish/stop those that abuse the intent of the legislation, like the example cited in the article.
 
skip3

skip3

Explorer
Nov 21, 2009
213
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cc tx, Green Bank Nj
You know, I feel obligated to say that I am sure that there are people who take advantage of the tax code, but just because you follow it doesn't mean you are taking advantage of it.
Kind of like the gun laws, just because you own one doesn't mean you are going to hold up a bank.
 
RednekF350

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
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Pestletown, N.J.
46er said:
As one example; the link is to the property record of Jon Bon Jovi's 6.5 acre home in Middletown along the NavesinK River, very nice neighborhood, Bruce lives nearby across the river. Bon Jovi pays just $100 a year in taxes.

http://php.app.com/mod4_07/details.php?recordID=2023701
Click to expand...

Very slipshod reporting sir.
A little casual research shows he pays $45,607.00 on the improved portion (0.5 acres) of the same lot 8.01.
Most assessors tax an acre with the improvements but some will allow a half acre as in this case.
Qfarm next to a lot designation in a tax record means farm qualified. The same lot number without Qfarm is the improved portion.
The lot is assesed at 2.5 million and contains a 2,309 s.f structure.

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/m4.cgi?&district=1332&block=885&lot=8.01&qual=

The real kicker is the contiguous property possibly containing Mr. Bongiovi's real house, lot 8.04, it is taxed $250,082.98. That's not the assessed value, that is his tax bill.
The assessed value is $14 million and the house has a footprint of 17,200 s.f.

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/m4.cgi?&district=1332&block=885&lot=8.04&qual=

I'd say he is paying his freight and I don't even like the guy.
:)
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
RednekF350 said:
I'd say he is paying his freight and I don't even like the guy.
:)
Click to expand...

Are you serious? What he is doing goes right to the heart of the need to toughen the Farmland Assesment Act. I think all would agree he is not a farmer and this one lot of his three is not farmland in danger of being developed. He only pays 'normal' taxes on his other lots because they do not meet the requirements of the assesment act. He's just another cheat.
 
imkms

imkms

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Feb 18, 2008
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SJ and SW FL
RednekF350 said:
I'd say he is paying his freight and I don't even like the guy.
:)
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree with that. He appears to be paying $295K in property taxes, plus who knows how much in State Income taxes. By holding empty land, he is also not contributing to more sprawl, so I think he is paying his way. Heck, we need more like him. :clint:
 
skip3

skip3

Explorer
Nov 21, 2009
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cc tx, Green Bank Nj
46er said:
Are you serious? What he is doing goes right to the heart of the need to toughen the Farmland Assesment Act. I think all would agree he is not a farmer and this one lot of his three is not farmland in danger of being developed. He only pays 'normal' taxes on his other lots because they do not meet the requirements of the assesment act. He's just another cheat.
Click to expand...
I don't see how he is a cheat if he is following the tax code. He pays almost 300,000.00 in property taxes, and puts no more draw on public services than someone paying 1% of that.
 
RednekF350

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
4,953
3,107
Pestletown, N.J.
46er said:
Are you serious? What he is doing goes right to the heart of the need to toughen the Farmland Assesment Act. I think all would agree he is not a farmer and this one lot of his three is not farmland in danger of being developed. He only pays 'normal' taxes on his other lots because they do not meet the requirements of the assesment act. He's just another cheat.
Click to expand...

If you are following laws as they are written, you are not a cheat. You are simply playing the game under the rules you were given.
If the State says you have to generate a certain minimum income from the land and you can legitamately do that, then you are not a cheat.

I am surrounded by what the article has termed as "Fake Farmers" and our Township has only recently started to clamp down.
Many, allegedly, made no attempt to grow anything and had "real" farmers provide paperwork saying that they had farmed the land and produced crops. I would term that cheating.

I have written farm mangement plans for several local people to satisfy the Pinelands Commission requirements for building a home in the Agricultural Production (AP) zone in which I live.
There is a 10 acre minimum to build where I live (I live in a pre-Pinelands subdivison on a measly half-acre)
In the AP zone you MUST farm if you are going to build a home, unless you are a pre-1979 owner or direct descendant of a pre-1979 owner.
The farm mangement plan has to be approved by the Pinelands Commission or local Zoning Officer before they will issue a Certificate of Filing.
Once the homes were built, everyone got comfortable and figured.. "Hey who's watching ?"
A few of these clients have been called to task and have paid penalties and have now started to produce at least some marketable form of half-assed product.

Here is the playbook in its entirety:
http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/FarmlandAssessmentGuide.pdf

Read the qualifying scenarios. Very interesting tools to de-scam the scams that abound.
The local assessors need to study this like the New Testament if the State wants to put the brakes on.
It's the assessor that is responsible for determining who is a cheat in the field. Most I have met don't know timothy from ragweed.

In the heaviest taxed State in the Union I have no problem with someone getting a break by working the rules.
If I could get farmland assessmnet for growing my tomatoes and long hots I would by a John Deere hat and jump on it in a second.

I have no idea if Mr. Bongiovi is scamming or haying. If he is haying then God bless him on his tax break.

Need new rules ? Maybe we do. Until then, farm on Brad and Muffy.

Just don't fake it.

Scott
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
RednekF350 said:
I have no idea if Mr. Bongiovi is scamming or haying. If he is haying then God bless him on his tax break.

Need new rules ? Maybe we do. Until then, farm on Brad and Muffy.

Just don't fake it.

Scott
Click to expand...

I'm sure the 'cheats' will embrace your forgiving nature. IMO, he is faking it, claims to be a beekeeper, sold $560 of bee related produce to qualify, just making the limits and perhaps legal by your standards, but its hard to know with the lack of enforcement. Unfortunately the honest folks make up the his tax difference. As shown in this article the practice is widespread, one of Jovis neighbors is far worse, for very obvious reasons. I wonder how widespread the cheating is in the Pines.

http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/12/11/news/doc4d0456c2882d6484823134.txt?viewmode=fullstory
 
skip3

skip3

Explorer
Nov 21, 2009
213
8
cc tx, Green Bank Nj
"Unfortunately the honest folks make up the his tax difference".

The man pays THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN PROPERTY TAXES. There ain't a whole lot of "difference" to make up.

Just what are the average property taxes in that state....

never mind I googled it and came up with 7300 a year
 
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