Mark F. Rockefeller, a
fourth-generation industrialist, probably had taxes on his mind when he
purchased roughly 5,000 acres of farmland in Swan Valley, Idaho, and
started receiving subsidy checks at his capitalist lair in the
Rockefeller Plaza. Starting in 2001, the federal government has been
giving him $54,500 a year to not farm his land.
But rich subsidy queens
don’t need to travel far to filch their fair share of taxpayer wealth;
they can do it right where they live and work. Failed dot-com
entrepreneur Craig Winn lives in Albemarle, Va., and paid $1,000 in
taxes on a $3.5 million estate by converting its 50 acres into conserved
farmland. All his rich neighbors, including pop culture hacks Dave
Matthews and John Grisham, enrolled their land in the tax saver program,
too. Hell, even Walt Disney World became a farmer by putting some cows
to pasture on its land in Orlando to shave millions off its tax bill.
Hewlett-Packard opened up a Christmas tree farm on its massive Houston
campus, which saved it (and cost Houston) half a million dollars a year
in taxes.
Slightly more than $10/acre is a pittance, and certainly not an incentive. I don’t agree with the program, but nobody could lease the land for such a paltry sum.
What did he pay for the land? more than $1000/acre I’d wager. How much are you willing to invest at less than 1% annual return? And there are still costs associated with the land, even if he is “not farming” his land.
The tax relief is NOT “filched” nor does it “cost” municipalities. A landowner does not steal when he determines ways to pay less taxes - the money is HIS in the first place. By the same token, cities and counties cannot lose what they never owned.
Every person should make it their moral duty to pay as little tax as possible, and put ALL governments on subsistence diets!