Renting Farmland

Under the Farmland Assessment Act, the land must be actively devoted to agriculture. The Act does not require the land owners, themselves, to conduct farming activities. Land may be rented to another person who will actively farm the land.

It is the owner's responsibility to annually complete an application for Farmland Assessment. For rented land, the name, Social Security number of the farmer and the current year's farming activity must be provided. The municipal assessor may require clear evidence of sales, especially where farming activities are not readily apparent.

Rent received from a farmer is not considered the sale of an agricultural or horticultural commodity, and can not be used to meet the sales requirement for farmland assessment. Instead, the value of production sold from the land by the lessee is used.