What triggers rollback taxes?
Rollback taxes are triggered when land in use value taxation changes to a nonqualifying use, or when, absent a local ordinance saying otherwise, its zoning is changed to a more intensive use at the request of the owner or his agent. Splitting off parcels that miss the minimum acreage or a qualifying use also triggers them. A sale to an owner who keeps the use without rezoning does not.
Three events start the roll-back, and five look-alikes do not
Sort the event before worrying about the bill. Three kinds of event attach roll-back to land in land use taxation. Five other events look similar and do not attach it on their own, and the first of those is a plain change of owner.
Events that attach roll-back
- A change from the use by which the land qualified to a nonqualifying use.
- A change of zoning to a more intensive use "at the request of the owner or his agent", except as a subsection G ordinance provides.
- A split-off by conveyance or other action of the owner, on the separated land, unless the resulting parcels meet the minimum acreage and are used for a qualifying purpose.
Events that do not attach it by themselves
- A change of owner, where the new owner does not rezone to a more intensive use and continues the classified use.
- A taking by eminent domain.
- A portion used under a special use permit or as zoning otherwise allows, where the rest still meets the requirements.
- A split into parcels that meet the minimum acreage and stay in a qualifying use.
- A family subdivision below the minimum acreage, where the locality has adopted that option.
A change to a nonqualifying use, charged only on the part that changed
The first trigger is the plainest: the use by which the land qualified changes to a nonqualifying use. Roll-back is then assessed only against the portion of the real estate that no longer qualifies, and liability attaches only if the tax due exceeds ten dollars.
The statute does not list every nonqualifying use, so county pages give their own examples, such as a dwelling built on enrolled ground. Those county statements, and what they mean when a working farm changes hands, are gathered under selling a farm in the land use program. Whether a change you are planning is a nonqualifying use on your land is the Commissioner of the Revenue's determination.
Getting land ready to sell raises a neighboring question, whether clearing or mowing ahead of a listing is worth doing at all. That has its own page: clearing or bush hogging before listing.
A rezoning the owner asked for, unless the county wrote an exception
The second trigger turns on who asked. Real property zoned to a more intensive use at the request of the owner or his agent is liable for roll-back at the time the zoning is changed.
- Out of the program afterward. Land rezoned to a more intensive use at the owner's or agent's request is not eligible for use value taxation, except where the rezoning is required for the establishment, continuation or expansion of a qualifying use.
- The subsection G exception. A locality may enact an ordinance under which a rezoning for specific more intensive uses named in it does not by itself make roll-back due. The land may stay eligible as long as its qualifying use does not change, and no roll-back comes due until it does.
- The three-year wait. If the land is later rezoned to agricultural, horticultural or open space, it is eligible for consideration only after three years have passed since that rezoning took effect.
The trigger the statute describes is a zoning change at the owner's or agent's request. Whether a zoning change made some other way affects a given parcel is a question for the Commissioner of the Revenue.
Dividing enrolled land: which splits bring roll-back and which pass without it
The third trigger sits in its own section of the Code. Separating or splitting off lots, pieces or parcels, by conveyance or other action of the owner, subjects the separated land to the roll-back taxes that apply to it.
| The division | Roll-back on the split? |
|---|---|
| Split-off parcels that miss the minimum acreage or are not used for a qualifying purpose | Yes, on the separated land |
| A subdivision or split whose resulting parcels meet the minimum acreage and are used for a qualifying purpose | No |
| The remaining land, where it still meets the minimum acreage and other conditions | No; it continues without roll-back |
| A family subdivision made under the county's subdivision ordinance that creates parcels below the minimum, with title held in an immediate family member's name for at least the first 60 months | No, but only where the locality has adopted that option |
Wythe County's FAQ gives the example of twelve acres subdivided into four three-acre lots bringing roll-back on the subdivided portions; three acres is below the statute's five-acre minimum for agricultural or horticultural use. The rules for making a family division in the first place, beyond this one tax option, are on what a family subdivision is in Virginia.
A sale, a taking and a permitted corner, and why none of them starts the roll-back
Three of the look-alikes come up around a sale or a public project, and each has a sentence of its own in the Code.
A sale to someone who keeps the use
Liability "shall not attach when a change in ownership of the title takes place if the new owner does not rezone the real estate to a more intensive use", unless a subsection G ordinance provides otherwise, and the new owner "continues the real estate in the use for which it is classified".Land taken for public use
A taking of land in the program by right of eminent domain does not subject the land taken to roll-back taxes.One portion put to another use
Land designated as devoted to agricultural use does not lose that designation solely because a portion is used for a different purpose under a special use permit or as zoning otherwise allows, if the rest still meets every requirement. That portion is deemed a separate piece of property for assessment.The sale case, taken sale type by sale type, is on selling land that is in land use. Who is assessed when a change falls just before or just after a closing is on who pays rollback taxes when land sells.
What follows a trigger: the report, the assessment and the look-back
Once an event attaches roll-back, the owner at the time reports it, the commissioner assesses it, and the bill reaches back over past tax years.
That sequence, with the look-back computed, the payment deadline and the penalties for a missed report, is set out in the land use program explained, and the one-line definition is under rollback taxes. A county's interest rate, and whether it has adopted a family subdivision or subsection G ordinance, come from its Commissioner of the Revenue.
Planning a change on land that is enrolled in land use?
Describe the change you have in mind and the county the land sits in. Lowell will talk through how the change bears on a later sale, and whether it is a nonqualifying use stays the Commissioner of the Revenue's call. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Can land go back into the program after an owner-requested rezoning?
Only after a wait. If property rezoned to a more intensive use at the owner's request is later rezoned to agricultural, horticultural or open space, it is eligible for consideration for use value taxation only after three years have passed since that rezoning took effect. It still has to meet the class, acreage and use tests when it applies again, and the Commissioner of the Revenue decides that.
Does a roll-back reach the whole tract when only a small part changes use?
No. Roll-back is assessed only against the portion of the real estate that no longer qualifies, and liability attaches only if the tax due exceeds ten dollars. Where a portion of agricultural land is used for another purpose under a special use permit or as zoning allows, the rest keeps its designation if it still meets the requirements, and that portion is treated as a separate piece of property for assessment.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 58.1-3230, special classifications, and use under a special use permit Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3233, minimum acreage Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3237, roll-back taxes, rezoning and subsection G Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3237.1, additional provisions for named counties Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3238, failure to report and misstatements Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3241, separation of lots, split-offs and family subdivisions Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3242, taking by eminent domain Virginia General Assembly
- Frequently asked questions: land use assessment Wythe County, Virginia