<font color=blue>Could you tell me more about the wildlife exemption.</font color=blue>
I'm not Lloyd, but I'll give you some info..../w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
Basically, the process goes something like this:
1) Get the wildlife management guideline info specific to your region of Texas. (downloadable in PDF format from the Texas Parks & Wildlife website)
2) Meet with a TPWD wildlife biologist to help you understand what makes sense to do with your land to increase wildlife. (This is optional, but adds weight when submitting to the tax assessor.) Your local tax office can tell you who is the TPWD biologist they commonly work with, or just contact TPWD and ask them who to use in your area.
3) Create a formalized wildlife management plan (document). This outlines what you will be doing. Technically it is the responsibility of the landowner, but some biologists or services will write it up for you if you think you can’t. (There are some examples you can utilize to write it up, so you aren’t completely alone when making one.)
4) Submit your plan and 1-d-1(w) paperwork to the county tax assessor for consideration & approval.
The link below is basically a premier of what is involved to qualify.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/conserve/agland/>TPWD Wildlife Management Plan Qualification Guidelines</A>
Unfortunately lots of folks think the Wildlife Management exemption status ( 1-d-1(w) ) is a cheap and easy way out of paying taxes. Be forewarned - it is neither.
You'll still have to meet intensity requirements based on the activities you choose to conduct and have to do them on a continuous basis. (a $350 deer feeder on a couple of dozen acres isn't gonna cut it with the State.) Yes, you'll save $ overall, but just realize it isn't "free" either. Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of the program, just wanna make clear that it requires real dollars and work to implement.
<font color=blue>We lost the AG exemption on our land</font color=blue>
Here's where you have a problem. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif
Basically, as you'll read in the primer of qualifying in the link I put above, you can
convert land already in ag production (1-d-1) to wildlife, but not convert non-ag land straight to wildlife. Basically the law was written to encourage land purchased from existing ranchers/farmers to either remain in production or "go wild," not to convert land that has already been allowed to go out of production to get a tax break.
<font color=blue>cause we wern't generating any income from it</font color=blue>
/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif Sounds fishy. As long as you converted from a 1-d to a 1-d-1 and were meeting the intensity requirements for your type of production/locale, they should not have revoked your ag exemption. (1-d is the income based exemption, 1-d-1 is the intensity based exemption). 'Course if you weren't conducting any agriculture operations, only makes sense to revoke the status.
Hope this helps.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/50-129.pdf>1-d-1 Agriculture Form</A>
