Number of States 
Exemption 
4 
&} 
2 
1 
0 
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 
14 Modified assessment 
13 
12 
11 
10 
9 
8 
7h 
6 
5 
4 
3 
2 
1 
0 
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 
Yield tax 
0 
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 
Severance tax 
0 
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 
Figure 1-Long-term trends in the use of alternative "special" forest tax 
laws in the South. 
and Virginia (1948) adopted similar statutes. Over 
the last 35 years, the number of such laws has 
grown to five. 
Review of Current Policies 
Table 5 identifies the special forest tax laws that 
are now operative in each of the Southern States. 3) 
The table also indicates the year that each piece of 
legislation was enacted. While no attempt will be 
112 
made to describe these various statutes in depth, 
their key features warrant brief review. 
(3) The information used to prepare table 5 as well as the rest 
of this section of the reportwas obtained from essentially 
two sources: volume 20 of the Timber Tax Journal (Forest 
Industries Committee on Timber Valuation and Taxation 
1984) and statute books for each of the Southern States. 
