New Jersey beekeeping tax breaks. anyone?

[Ocean]

One of my friends read an article online some time ago about beekeepers receiving tax breaks. Apparently if you have an apiary on your property it can qualify for this tax break. I'm not familiar with this, but does anyone know if New Jersey does this for beekeepers? if not which states appreciate beekeepers more than Jersey?
where can i read about the law? and see if my property qualifies for this tax exemption. I don't owe acres of land, but i do have a couple of hives.

here is an article: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/investigative/farm-tax-breaks-for-nj-celebrities-20110209

thanks.

[Ocean]

and another one:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/12/11/fake-farmers-cost-n-j-taxpayers-millions/

[BjornBee]

Good for them!

Nobody should have to pay 250,000 dollars in property taxes on 10 acres of land.

The article would like readers to enraged about some folks taking advantage of a loophole. I'm sickened by the governments position that it has the right to tax people at these rates to begin with.

In Pa. I must claim 2,000 dollars per year on my taxes to qualify as a working farm and to qualify for a small tax break. I perhaps save 500 dollars per year. But I also lose out in that if I ever sell the property, I will have to pay the back taxes for 10 years. This policy has nobody gettin rich. It just allows people to keep farms and helps protect it from development, rewarding land owners with a small savings instead of having them sell out to developers.

For the record, New Jersey has one of the highest assessed property taxes in the country. I have a friend who owns a home in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They are comparable in price and size. In Pennsylvania, his taxes are about 2,000 per year. In New Jersey, they are over 10,000. I can't see how folks can pay property taxes like that.

[boca]

This policy has nobody gettin rich.

in fact it did make a few very rich.

For the record, New Jersey has one of the highest assessed property taxes in the country. I have a friend who owns a home in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They are comparable in price and size. In Pennsylvania, his taxes are about 2,000 per year. In New Jersey, they are over 10,000. I can't see how folks can pay property taxes like that.

The difference of Pennsylvania and and New Jersey is that in NJ the biggest part of the property tax is tax on the improvement (building). It punishes productive work. In many places in Pennsylvania the tax is higher on the land (which is not a result of productive work) than on improvement.
Make a search on "Land value tax". It is not even a tax.
Dan Sullivan contrasted the experience of Pittsburgh and Cleveland

[BjornBee]

This policy has nobody gettin rich.

in fact it did make a few very rich.

Not sure how having the government taking less of your money makes anyone rich. The person earned the money to begin with. Comparing how much the government takes (like 25% or 75%) and then claiming the government made you "rich" by looking at the lower amount, is a false application. The government "allowed" you to keep more, so you claim they "made" you rich is the wrong way to look at in my opinion. Taxation does not make you rich. And lowering taxes does not "make" you rich, it just allows you to keep more of YOUR money you earned to begin with. If you own 10 acres of waterfront property in New Jersey, you probably were well of before and regardless of how much the government allowed you to keep. And I don't think the government should be credited with allowing someone to get "rich" by a lower tax rate, or thinking that person somehow got rich off the backs of others.

And I really don't care how you rationalize it, slice it, or coat it, anytime government has the power to charge you, take from you, money, by claiming a user fee, an owner fee, or anything else, it is a tax. I know some would like to call taxes an "investment" or a "privilege fee" or some other sugar coated term. If the government is collected fees in any way, it is a tax. Unless you can opt out of it. Not by deciding to not buy or own something. It's like saying a consumption tax is not a tax, because you can decide to not purchase anything. Hogwash! It is a tax.

BTW....my farming tax break is about 30%. My taxes went from about 1800 dollars to just over 1200 dollars. 30% reduction in anyone's property taxes in Pennsylvania, could hardly be called allowing folks to get rich.

As for your signature....My fruits belong to me. Not you, the guy down the street, or the government. Unless your buying, your not getting! Sorry.  ;) But don't feel bad. You can still give me some of yours. Just make it in the form of a check please.

[boca]

As for your signature....My fruits belong to me. Not you, the guy down the street, or the government.

Keep what you make and pay for what you take.
So whatever "fruit" you make belongs to you 100%. Income tax is immoral and destructive.
But the resources which no one created is not moral to keep as a privilege. If you go back in time and investigate how land is obtained, you find always violence... and violence breads violence.
All the endless wars waged today are for oil. Destructive.
The other way of using the natural resources is relying on the free market and share the surplus which nobody has created. One example is the oil dividend of Alaska. Who this fruit - the oil in the earth e.g the opportunity to extract it - belong to?

[BjornBee]

As for your signature....My fruits belong to me. Not you, the guy down the street, or the government.

Keep what you make and pay for what you take.
So whatever "fruit" you make belongs to you 100%. Income tax is immoral and destructive.
But the resources which no one created is not moral to keep as a privilege. If you go back in time and investigate how land is obtained, you find always violence... and violence breads violence.
All the endless wars waged today are for oil. Destructive.
The other way of using the natural resources is relying on the free market and share the surplus which nobody has created. One example is the oil dividend of Alaska. Who this fruit - the oil in the earth e.g the opportunity to extract it - belong to?

As I said, you can slice it, dice it, and rationalize it all you want. You can bring up the past. You can add stories of this and that of the past.

But yes, what you said I believe.

You, the guy down the street, the government, and anyone else reading this, does not have the RIGHT to come on my property, reach into my pocket and take my money, or help themselves to my hives.

The whole idea that the worlds "fruits" belong to everyone is a bunch of leftist socialist dialog, that is commented on by some, until they have someone else come by and take their fruits. Then they complain like everyone else. I just happen to take the stance PRIOR to it happening, and stand by my position. While those that make the warm and fuzzy statements like "The fruits of this world belong to all of us" is only stated as long as it'd someone Else's fruit being taken.

I'm not against paying some taxes for emergency services, roads, police and host of other public benefits. But when one groups stands up, and demands that they are entitled to what others work for, have accumulated, and want it for the sake of having less, then yes, I am opposed to that.  For some, saying what I am saying is not PC. But I am not out for a warm fuzzy feeling. Sorry. And what the government now takes, is way beyond what is should take. I never said you should not pay taxes.

The problem is, with the ideologue that you seem to make, you probably feel that you should give it all to the government or the guy down the street. I do not feel that way. When the government or the average person feels they are entitled to what others have, that is a problem. And suggesting because someone lost something in the past, entitles the next group today to do the same thing, does not make it right.

[boca]

I never said you should not pay taxes.

But I say so. I say nobody has the right to take part of the result of my work. Whatever I produce belongs to me entirely. Whatever you produce belong to you entirely.
The income of the community should come from the value the community created as a whole.

Without going into the details of implementation, do you agree with these principles?

[FRAMEshift]

I never said you should not pay taxes.

But I say so. I say nobody has the right to take part of the result of my work. Whatever I produce belongs to me entirely.

Then you can go live on the moon.  You did not produce anything completely by yourself.  You use the roads and the postal system and the education system AND THE INTERNET!  All of these things were created in part by government.  They were paid for by earlier taxpayers to help you.  So now it's your turn to support necessary institutions and to pass a functioning society to future generations.

What a very selfish world we live in, when people take and use the fruits of those who came before, but leave nothing for the future.

[boca]

I cannot live on the moon, but the life can be made better on the earth.

You are right. I cannot live completely on my own. Minimum two factors of production are needed to produce anything: land and labor. Capital (e.g. tools) increases productivity but not indispensable.
Here is a better presentation on how the current tax system is messed up and how infrastructure is paid two times by workers and subsidize landowners. One person can be in both role by working and owning land so he/she could be looser or beneficiary depending on the proportions.
That's why the US infrastructure is evaporating. e.g. the present generation leaves less than received from previous generations.

[buzzbee]

I agree with Bjorn on this one. The fact of taking what belongs to someone to give it to someone else is just wrong.When non producers are outpacing producers and screaming for more,where does the producer finally throw in the towel and decide to become one of the others?
  And then the mob mentality sets in and says the few producers left are just not producing enough and should be further punished.

But back to OP,this was not specifically a beekeeper tax credit,it was an agricultural credit. And personally,I don't think a couple hives in the back yard qualifies you as an agricultural interest.

Remember Sam Donaldson the news anchor?Ever blasting upon evil corporate America. Seems this guy forgot to tell all of us about 1 million in goverment subsidies for raising angora goats for the mohair. There must have been a real need for the mohair for the government to give that particular American all of those subsidy payments.

[Shanevrr]

The students in the agriculture program have done
extensive research on agriculture in Virginia and the
problem with honey bees needed for pollination and
met with several Virginia legislators receptive to
introducing a bill drafted by the students. The bill
proposes a tax credit of $200 per bee hive started in
Virginia by new beekeepers. There is a limit of 12
hives qualifying for the tax credit and the students
also plan to develop a "Code of Conduct" for
participating beekeepers. If passed the tax credit
will continue from 2012 to 2015.
The goal is to increase the number of beekeepers
and honey bees in the state, the main pollinator of
agriculture crops and critical to crop production in
Virginia. The number of colonies has declined from
more than 80,000 in 1950 to just 5,000 in 2010.
Honey bees contribute approximately $75 million
per year to Virginia agriculture.

[boca]

I agree with Bjorn on this one. The fact of taking what belongs to someone to give it to someone else is just wrong.

(Almost) everybody agrees on that. That is stealing.
The disagreement comes when it has to be decided what belongs to who.

[buzzbee]

And the larger problem is who does the deciding.

[boca]

That is a problem only if the claim of ownership is respected by others.
If I claim: "The sun is mine" is nothing unless others accept and respect (perhaps enforce on others) that claim. ...and pay rent to me.

[FRAMEshift]

The fact of taking what belongs to someone to give it to someone else is just wrong.When non producers are outpacing producers and screaming for more,where does the producer finally throw in the towel and decide to become one of the others?

And who are the producers?  The producers are the engineers, the welders, the computer programmers, the beekeepers..... people who make things and make things work.   The suits that sell things, the drones that do mergers and acquisitions, the people in "human resources" whose job is to cheat workers out of agreed benefits and salary..... those are not producers.  Oh, and the crooks who run insurance companies... they are not producers.

So if you are talking about taking from the wealthy what "belongs to producers",  I think that is not correct.  A fair economic system must allocate wealth according to real productivity.  I hope we all agree on that.   :-D