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ARTICLE · 16 JULY 2009

Understanding The New Georgia Forest Land Dedication Program

Holland & Knight
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Georgia has a new forest land dedication program for reduction of real property taxes on timber land. This complex program can be beneficial to many land owners but qualified legal guidance is recommended.

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By James Watson, Senior Counsel in our Atlanta office.

Georgia has a new forest land dedication program for reduction of real property taxes on timber land. This complex program can be beneficial to many land owners but qualified legal guidance is recommended. Quite a number of land owners scurry to their local tax offices to sign the over-simplified forms for such dedications without fully understanding the effects or the risks.

"Emergency" regulations were adopted in May 2009 and similar final regulations are proposed and pending as of June 2009 under the forest land statute that was passed (without broad attention) in 2008. The new program is under O.C.G.A. §48-5-7.7. The new law augments and compares with two other Georgia tax-reduction dedication plans – "agricultural" dedication under Section 48-5-7.1 and "conservation" dedication under Section 48-5-7.4, which have been in effect for a number of years. View the new statute (click through Georgia

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