​Summary:

North Carolina’s Present-Use Value program is a robust tax incentive program available to landowners who use their land for agricultural, horticultural, or forestry production. If the landowner meets certain statutory requirements, then their property can be appraised at its present-use value rather than its market value, the standard, when calculating property taxes. Present-use value can be significantly lower than the property's market value. The requirements include, among other criteria, a “sound management plan.” If the land falls out of agricultural, horticultural, or forestry use, the landowner must pay “rollback” taxes.  

 

Recommendations:

1. The N.C. Department of Revenue should revise its sound management plan criteria to include a second tier: an exceptional management plan. Landowners would qualify for the exceptional management plan by implementing specific conservation and long-term improvement activities on their land that amount to a higher standard of management practices. Qualifying practices under the exceptional management plan should include regenerative agriculture practices, including regenerative grazing. Upon verification that they qualify, the landowner would receive additional reductions in the present-use value of their property—an extra tax benefit.

2. Counties administering PUV programs should use the revenue collected from “rollback” taxes to create funds that support farmers already enrolled in PUV through sound management plans to transition to exceptional management plans. By creating this fund, the Department of Revenue will incentivize farmers and ranchers to transition to practices that improve soil health and water quality, such as regenerative grazing systems

 

​Helping farmers thrive through decreased taxes and increased funding will help improve the health of county lands, communities, and economies—while also creating a healthy policy environment for regenerative grazing practices to thrive.