PART 7. THE PROPERTY TAX BURDEN AND ITS 
EFFECTS ON FOREST MANAGEMENT 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
Introduction] [oe ee ee 225 | Effects of the property tax on forest manage- 254 
The property-tax burden on forests________-_- 225 IMOMG DONE sae Se SEY Baia Man ote aes 254 
Hssentialidata ss oscuro a sai ee 225 Nature of the evidence_____________-___- 
Amount of taxes and relation to value___ 226 Effect on the holding of old- growth timber 
Relation of taxes to income_____________- 235 Effect on the growing of timber_____-_-- 
PISO TAGS eee tes TL A re eke RO 246e i © ONCUSIONS =. aden o aelee ee Oe ea ol 276 
INTRODUCTION 
The preceding part dealt with the property tax base and indicated 
the place occupied by forests in this tax base. It is now in order to 
investigate the property-tax burden on forests and its effects on forest 
management. 
THE PROPERTY-TAX BURDEN ON FORESTS 
ESSENTIAL DATA 
In a study of forest-tax burden the following data are essential: (1) 
The amount of taxes on forests; (2) the relation of these taxes to 
assessed value (this, expressed in percentage, is obviously the property- 
tax rate); (3) the relation of taxes to the actual value of the forests 
or to the best possible estimate of actual value (this, expressed in 
percentage, will hereafter be termed the ratio of taxes to estimated 
value); (4) the relation between forest taxes and forest income (this, 
expressed in percentage, is the tax ratio as defined in pt. 3); (5) past 
trends in forest taxes as a possible means of predicting future trends; 
and (6) data similar to the above for other types of property for the 
purpose of comparing the tax burden on forests with that on other 
kinds of property. 
The reader will of course appreciate that here also, as with the 
segregation of forests from the tax base, the determination of taxes 
on all forests in a given political unit may be made only approxi- 
mately, because of the practice of levying taxes by parcels or proper- 
ties rather than by types of land. The procedure followed in the 
determination of the taxes on all forests in the selected political units 
was, in general, to calculate the tax rate for sample properties and to 
apply that rate to the assessed value of forests given in part 6. The 
estimates of actual value, used for the purpose of relating the taxes 
to actual value, are the same as those used in part 6 and are therefore 
subject to the same limitations. The most complete and perhaps 
most accurate data are those derived from a special study of timber 
properties in Washington and Oregon. 
101285 °—35——-15 225 
