Designation of farmland for non-agricultural purposes and the income of communes from the property tax

Abstract

The paper addresses the problem of the elimination of agricultural production only from fragments of lots on which building investments are made. The cost of turning farmland to non-agricultural uses and the difference in the rates of the agricultural tax and the property tax are very often the reasons why the elimination involves only a fragment of a lot, while the remaining part is formally still in agricultural use, even though the owner usually does not conduct any farming activity on it. This situation has serious consequences for commune budgets, and it also makes it very hard to establish the actual area of land in agricultural use. The research has shown that in the case of the Bytkowo district located in Rokietnica commune, nearly one-third of the total area of built-up building lots still figures in the Land and Buildings Register as farmland, and is subject to taxation with the agricultural tax. In 2015 the property tax rate for land in Rokietnica commune is 0.47 zlotys/m2, while the agricultural tax is 255,00 zlotys/ha, or 0.0255 zlotys/m2. As a result of taxing this land with the agricultural tax, the income of the commune will be markedly lower than if the property tax were paid. In the Bytkowo district, where 17,225 m2 of built-up building lots are classified as agricultural land, in 2015 this difference will amount to 7,656.51 zlotys. The difference in those taxes, and thus the loss to the commune budget, can be illustrated even more pointedly on the example of a single lot. In the case of a building lot 865 m2 in area, of which 479 m2 are classified in the Land and Buildings Register as B (residential land), while the remaining 386 m2 are R IIIb (arable land), its owner is going to save 171.57 zlotys yearly by paying the agricultural tax instead of the property tax, thus depriving the income of the commune of this sum. In conclusion, one can state that the rules for taking farmland out of agricultural production have led not only to irrational farmland management, but have also opened up the possibility of paying a low agricultural tax on land that in fact is not used for agricultural purposes.