2942

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 573

receive the agricultural use assessment; providing certain
additional exemptions from the agricultural transfer tax;
and generally relating to agricultural use assessment and
the agricultural transfer tax.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,

Article 81 - Revenue and Taxes

Section 19(b) and 278F(f)

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1980 Replacement Volume and 1983 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

Article 81 - Revenue and Taxes

19.

(b) (1) (I) Lands which are actively devoted to farm or
agricultural use shall be assessed on the basis of such use, and
shall not be assessed as if subdivided, it being the intent of
the General Assembly that the assessment of farmland shall be
maintained at levels compatible with the continued use of such
land for farming and shall not be adversely affected by
neighboring land uses of a more intensive nature... The General
Assembly hereby declares it to be in the general public interest
that farming be fostered and encouraged in order to maintain a
readily available source of food and dairy products close to the
metropolitan areas of the State, to encourage the preservation of
open space as an amenity necessary to human welfare and
happiness, and to prevent the forced conversion of such open
space to more intensive uses as a result of economic pressures
caused by the assessment of land at a rate or level incompatible
with the practical use of such land for farming. The State
Department of Assessments and Taxation shall establish criteria
for the purpose of determining whether lands which appear to be
actively devoted to farm or agricultural use are in fact bona
fide farms and qualify for assessment under this subsection AND
FOR THE PURPOSE OF ADMINISTERING THE PROVISIONS OF THIS
SUBSECTION. Such criteria shall be promulgated in rules and
regulations which shall include, but shall not be limited to, the
following:

[(i)] 1. Zoning applicable to the land.

[(ii)] 2. Present and past use of the land
including land under the soil bank provisions of the Agricultural
Stabilization Act of the United States government.

[(iii)] 3. Productivity of the land including
timberlands and lands used for reforestation.

4. GROSS INCOME DERIVED FROM THE
AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY.