Auditor's Office completes maple syrup CAUV inspections
Feb. 15—JEFFERSON — As tree sap starts flowing in Ashtabula County, Auditor David Thomas and his staff are checking production to ensure compliance with agricultural property tax-saving programs.
"Current Agriculture Use Valuation (CAUV) is a big tax saver for our farmers and agricultural property owners producing commercial products," Thomas said.
"We make sure that if folks are on the program, they are doing the production which qualifies them."
The auditor and staff travel to about 30 properties in Ashtabula County that qualify for CAUV based on their maple syrup production. Properties in commercial agriculture use which span more than 10 acres, or if less than 10 acres, average more than $2,500 a year in income from the product, can qualify for CAUV saving roughly 75 percent on average.
Production of maple syrup, very common in Ashtabula County, is a qualifying agricultural product for CAUV.
"We have been seeing the number of properties who qualify based on maple syrup, roughly 30 now, growing each year," he said.
"This has been good to see as we can encourage more production for our county."
Checking for production includes CAUV staff member Heather Hall and the Director of the Ashtabula County Soil and Water Conservation District Nate Paskey driving to each property to visually inspect the woods during harvesting season. This process is similar to inspections for traditional crop or animal CAUV, which sees staff visually confirming the presence of agriculture production.
Each year the Auditor's Office views thousands of parcels on CAUV to either continue the properties in the program, or remove them for lack of activity.
Thomas said they take this very seriously as the substantial savings for CAUV is paid for by an increase in other property owner's taxes to make up the difference.
"Remember, revenue to local governments stays roughly flat unless a new levy is passed," he said.
"This means that credits or reductions in taxes comes from other property tax payers or the state from income taxes."
Thomas' staff rarely sees issues with maple syrup qualifiers given the strong demand for the product and the fact that most harvesters are well established in their production.
This year was no different as the crew saw production occurring and tree sap being harvested in all of their checked properties. This included trees which were tapped with plastic lines, plastic bags, metal buckets, and some reflective bags, as well.
"Heather (Hall) and our GIS team have done an awesome job using technology to make this process much quicker turning what could take a week into a day long trip and for traditional CAUV what had been nearly two months into a few weeks," Thomas said.
Those who are interested in learning more about CAUV and possible tax reductions for their property are encouraged to look at the Auditor's website or contact the Auditor's Office at 440-576-3783.
