TAXATION OF FORESTS IN MASSACHUSETTS.* 

 Re:marks by Professor Charles J. Bullock.^ 



In 1912 Massachusetts adopted a constitutional amendment 

 permitting the classification of wild and forest land for the 

 purpose of taxation, and the following year a commission was 

 appointed to draft a new law for the taxation of forests. Last 

 January this commission submitted its draft of a scientific forest 

 tax law which was adopted substantially without amendment and 

 given the title of The Forest Classification and Tax Act. The 

 enactment of this measure marks the end of a large campaign, 

 carried on through many years, for a system of forest taxation 

 that would encourage the conservation and development, rather 

 than the destruction, of the forest resources of the State. 



The new law does not provide a new method of taxing all wild 

 and forest lands, but, like those recently enacted in other States, 

 is limited in its operation to lands registered under its provision. 

 Such registration may be made with the clerks of cities and towns, 

 after the assessors have determined that the land is suitable for 

 forestry purposes, and have made separate valuations of the land 

 and the timber growing thereon. Land may be classified either 

 as woodlot or plantation, the former being defined as land having 

 on it timber of merchantable value, the latter being land without 

 such timber. 



By registering his land the landowner receives the benefit of 

 the new system of taxation. Lands registered under the Act 

 of 1914 are exempt from other taxation, and subject to, (a) 

 forest land tax, which is levied at the land rate upon the bare 

 value of the land excluding timber; (b) forest product tax, which 

 is levied on all timber when cut, and upon any other income 

 as it accrues; and, in the case of woodlots, (c) forest commuta- 

 tion tax, which is levied upon standing timber taxed in the year 

 1913, and at the valuation of that year. The land tax will, 

 of course, be very small upon land that ought to be used for 

 forestry purposes. The tax on the product will be levied at the 



*Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Protection of 

 New Hampshire Forests. 

 ^ Harvard University. 

 544 



