Amendment ID: S2258-10

Amendment 10

Estate tax valuation for farms

Messrs. Tarr and Humason move to amend the bill by inserting after SECTION 16 the following new section:-

"SECTION_: Section 5 of chapter 65C of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (c) and inserting in place thereof the following 2 subsections:-

(c) If the gross estate of a decedent includes real property devoted to use as a farm for farming purposes, the estate may elect to either value such property in accordance with section 2032A of the Code,  in effect on January 1, 1985 or, if the gross estate of a decedent includes real property devoted to use for closely held agricultural land, the value of such land shall be valued pursuant to the valuation set by the farmland valuation advisory commission established pursuant to section 11 of chapter 61A for the fiscal year of the most recent growing season. If a federal return is required to be filed the election under this subsection shall be consistent with the election made for federal estate tax purposes. All the substantive and procedural provisions of said section 2032A shall, insofar as pertinent and consistent, apply to the election made under this subsection. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations to carry out the provisions of this subsection and subsection (d).

(d) To qualify for valuation of closely held agricultural land pursuant to subsection (c) the land shall meet the definition set forth in chapters 61, 61A or  61B and section 1A of chapter 128; provided, however that the land need not be classified by the municipal assessors pursuant to said chapters 61, 61A and 61B.

Whenever the closely held agricultural land is valued and taxed as set forth in this section no longer meets the definition of section 2 of chapter 61, sections 1 or 2 of chapter 61A or section 1 of chapter 61B and section 1A of chapter 128, the land shall be subject to additional taxes, called rollback taxes, in the current tax year in which it is disqualified and in those years of the 9 immediately preceding tax years in which the land was so valued."