Authority to promulgate rules and regulations regarding uniform books, records, forms, and manuals; limits on change in current use value of conservation use property.

(b) The commissioner shall promulgate after consultation with the Department of Agriculture, the Georgia Agricultural Statistical Service, the State Forestry Commission, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Cooperative Extension Service, and county tax officials shall follow uniform rules and regulations establishing a table of values for the current use value of bona fide conservation use property. Such rules and regulations shall apply to the evaluation of bona fide conservation use property, exclusive of any improvements thereon, which improvements shall have their current use value determined as otherwise provided by law. Such rules and regulations shall include, but not be limited to, the following provisions and criteria:

(1) Sales data for arm’s length, bona fide sales of comparable real property with and for the same existing use and per-acre property values determined by the capitalization of net income before property taxes, with sales data to be weighted 35 percent and income capitalization values to be weighted 65 percent. All sales data shall be adjusted to remove the influence of the size of the tract on the sales price of tracts below 50 acres in size. Income capitalization values shall be derived from the respective conservation use property classifications, with consideration given to productivity of the respective major geological or geographical regions, and for this purpose:

(A) Net income before property taxes shall be determined for:

(ii) Forest property by calculating a five-year weighted average of per-acre net income before property taxes from hardwood and softwood harvested in Georgia. For purposes of this division, the term “property taxes” shall not include the tax under Code Section 48-5-7.5 which tax shall be considered in calculating net income; and

(B) The capitalization rate shall be based upon:

(i) The long-term financing rate available on January 1 from the Regional Federal Land Bank located in Columbia, South Carolina, and published pursuant to 26 U.S.C. Section 2032A(e)(7)(A)(ii), further referenced by regulations 26 C.F.R. 20.2032A-4(e);

(ii) The arithmetic mean of Federal Farm Credit bond yields, whose maturity is no less than five years in the future, as published in the Wall Street Journal on January 1 or the most recent business day of the current year, rounded to the nearest hundredth;

(iii) For the purpose of determining the income capitalization rate, divisions (i) and (ii) of this subparagraph shall be given weighted influences of 80 percent and 20 percent, respectively; and

(iv) A property tax component which shall be the five-year average true tax rate for the unincorporated area of each county located within the regions established by paragraph (2) of this subsection;

(2) The state shall be divided into an appropriate grouping of the nine crop-reporting districts as delineated by the Georgia Agricultural Statistical Service for the purpose of determining any calculation under this subsection;

(3) In no event may the current use value of any conservation use property in the table of values established by the commissioner under this subsection for the taxable year beginning January 1, 1993, increase or decrease by more than 15 percent from its current use value as set forth in the table of values established by the commissioner under this subsection for the taxable year beginning January 1, 1992. In no event may the current use value of any conservation use property in the table of values established by the commissioner under this subsection for the taxable year beginning January 1, 1994, or any subsequent taxable year increase or decrease by more than 3 percent from its current use value as set forth in the table of values established by the commissioner under this subsection for the immediately preceding taxable year; and

(4) Environmentally sensitive properties as certified by the Department of Natural Resources shall be valued according to the average value determined for property of the same or similar soil type, as determined under paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection.

(c) In no event may the current use value of any conservation use property increase or decrease during a covenant period by more than 3 percent from its current use value for the previous taxable year or increase or decrease during a covenant period by more than 34.39 percent from the first year of the covenant period. The limitations imposed by this subsection shall apply to the total value of all the conservation use property that is the subject of an individual covenant including any improvements that meet the qualifications set forth in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Code Section 48-5-7.4; provided, however, that in the event the owner changes the use of any portion of the land or adds or removes therefrom any such qualified improvements, the limitations imposed by this subsection shall be recomputed as if the new uses and improvements were in place at the time the covenant was originally entered. History. Ga. L. 1972, p. 1104, § 11; Code 1933, § 91A-1411, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1903, § 10; Ga. L. 1993, p. 947, § 9; Ga. L. 1999, p. 81, § 48; Ga. L. 2017, p. 774, § 48/HB 323. The 2017 amendment, effective May 9, 2017, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “the State Forestry Commission” for “the Georgia Forestry Commission” near the beginning of the first sentence of subsection (b). Editor’s notes. Ga. L. 1991, p. 1903, § 15, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section shall be applicable beginning January 1, 1992, with respect to ad valorem taxation of timber and shall be applicable beginning January 1, 1992, for all other purposes. Taxation for prior periods shall continue to be governed by prior law. Ga. L. 1993, p. 947, § 10, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9 of this Act shall be applicable to all bona fide conservation use covenants entered into for all taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 1993, and to any table of values of bona fide conservation use property established by the state revenue commissioner for all taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 1993. Any bona fide conservation use covenant entered into for the taxable year beginning January 1, 1992, shall continue to be governed by the law in effect for that taxable year.”