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The other day I was in Champion Firearms buying a new pistol. I joked with Roger, their sales manager, that the gun was ag exempt for farm use. He said they had tried that before and the county tax office said it was not a valid exemption. It actually bugged me that they would do so. For instance my family own a ranch in Montgomery County and my father uses a rifle and a shotgun on the property for the ranch. He's not into shooting and doesn't do so very often just when he sees certain rodents that harm our property. Mainly nutra rats and coyotes/feral dogs. The other thing we shoot is white tipped vultures. We had to go through our local ag extension office and then get a permit to do so. It is absolutely agriculture related. Yet the rifle we use and the bullets we shoot aren't.

Anyone have any idea why this is so?

I've heard of "corporate welfare" but I didn't know there was "ag welfare" in Texas.

This is just a guess but since no one else has chimed in so far I'll give it a shot. It could be because that what you are going to shoot will not be sold and thus taxed later. IANAF (I am not a farmer)

boomerang wrote:I've heard of "corporate welfare" but I didn't know there was "ag welfare" in Texas.

I have been looking for land in Van Zandt county and have been amazed by the properties that have ag exemptions and the property is nothing but virgin timber land. Then I found out that a lot of people have ag exemptions on their land simply by allowing deer to be on it.

Anyone have any idea why this is so?

I'll venture a guess that agricultural farm implements such as tractors, plows, harrows, combines, seeders, etc, etc are single use implements. Can only be used for one thing.....thus having an ag exemption.

On the other hand a gun, can be used for more than agricultural predatory control, such as recreational hunting, target shooting, and the obvious self defense. Thus a gun is a multi-use implement on a farm or ranch.

Note: that's just speculation on my part, but it sure seems logical.

It's entertaining to watch my buddy try to convince the dealer that the S&W he's buying is for 'farm use'.

I had not heard of this either for I though ag exemptions were for farm animals, pasture, and crops. There is a wildlife tax exemption but this seems to be for conservation of wildlife and protecting some species and not so much to kill rodents. Why would one need a permit to kill rodents and ferel dogs? Over my head, just chiming in.

The other thing we shoot is white tipped vultures. We had to go through our local ag extension office and then get a permit to do so.

This site http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/827/ov ... lture.aspx says that they are in the LEAST CONCERNED catagory of protection so I am not sure about the permitting. Please explain.

Doug

ninemm wrote:I have been looking for land in Van Zandt county and have been amazed by the properties that have ag exemptions and the property is nothing but virgin timber land. Then I found out that a lot of people have ag exemptions on their land simply by allowing deer to be on it.

My land is 50/50, timber and pasture. There is a lot of cross-over in peoples' minds about timber and ag use, because they are so similarly assessed. The info you want is here: http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/p ... timbr.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some counties make it harder than others to get an ag appraisal. Some counties pro-actively check your pasture for patties, and others don't seem to ever check anything. My suspicion is that "rural" counties (like Van Zandt) expect that most acreage is either timber or ag (what else would it be?) and therefore issue the appraisal sight-unseen.