FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 385 
fication tax is the difference between all property taxes that would have been 
paid had such land not been classified and all yield taxes and acreage charges 
actually paid, with simple interest at 5 percent on both sides. Forest-crop lands 
are assessed annually for the purpose of determining the possible future declassi- 
fication tax. The State deducts from the declassification tax all moneys with 
interest at 5 percent per annum paid by it on account of such classified land and 
remits the balance ‘‘to the treasurers of the respective units of government that 
would have been entitled to such tax had it been originally levied, and in the same 
proportion.”’ If the initial requirements are violated within the first 5 years of 
classification, the declassification tax is a payment by the owner to the State of 
the amount paid by the State to the town on account of the forest-crop land, 
with interest at 5 percent. If the declassification taxes and penalties are not paid 
to the State within 3 years, such land becomes the property of the county. On 
the expiration of the 50-year term, if classification is not renewed, the yield tax 
is levied on the value of the entire stand of merchantable timber. 
X. Classification is declared to establish a contract which runs as a covenant 
with the land, by which the State agrees that neither the repeal of the act nor 
any subsequent amendment shall apply to property already classified, except by 
the mutual consent of the owner and the conservation commission. 
NONOPTIONAL, WITH LAND Tax RESTRICTED 
The two yield-tax laws of the nonoptional type (Oregon and Wash- 
ington) are similar to the optional yield tax laws with land tax re- 
stricted, except that, in addition to defining the qualifications that 
make forest lands eligible under the law, they require the State board 
of forestry rather than the owner to take the initiative and to proceed 
with classification until all the eligible lands in the State are taxed 
under the law. They give the owner no option to withhold his prop- 
erty from classification if it clearly belongs to the class of ‘‘reforesta- 
tion lands”’ as defined in the respective laws. In practice, it is under- 
stood to be the policy of the Oregon board to give great weight to the 
desires of the owner, and of the Washington board to make the law in 
effect an optional one by classifying only land which is listed by the 
owner. However such policies are subject to change by administra- 
tive action. 
The two laws of this type are much alike, except that the Oregon 
law imposes a specific tax of $0.05 per acre on the land, while the 
Washington law fixes an assessed value of $1 per acre west of the 
summit of the Cascade Mountains and $0.50 east of thissummit. In 
Washington property in general is assessed in the neighborhood of 25 
percent of true value,” so that classified lands in that State are taxed 
as if they had actual values of about $4 per acre on the west side of 
the Cascades and of about $2 on the east side. Also the 12%-percent 
yield-tax rate is fully effective from the beginning in Oregon, while it 
comes into effect by degrees in Washington. A digest of the Oregon 
law, which was the first of this type to become effective, follows. 
OREGON. SPECIFIC PROPERTY TAX AND YIELD TAX, PASSED IN 1929 
Oregon Code, 1930, secs., 42-101 to 42-122. 
I-II. On properties classified as ‘‘reforestation lands’’, the ‘“‘forest values” of 
the land and forest crop are exempt from the general property tax. All build- 
ings, improvements, water and power rights, mineral, or other values other than 
forest values are subject to taxation as heretofore. Otherwise the operation of 
the property tax with respect to the classified properties is not changed. 
III. An annual specific tax, called the ‘‘forest fee’’, is imposed at the rate of 5 
cents per acre, levied, collected, and distributed in the same manner as the general 
property tax, including the same penalties for nonpayment. 
18 See pt. 4 of this report and (213, p. 5). 
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