Tax credit proposed to help young Pennsylvania farmers acquire land

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, is backing legislation that would provide a tax credit as an incentive for selling or leasing land to a beginning farmer.

While in Harrisburg for its state legislative conference this week, the bureau urged support of the incentive as set forth in Senate Bill 478.

The proposed legislation would provide a landowner a one-time tax credit equaling 5 percent of the land’s sales price, up to a maximum credit of $32,000, or a 10 percent credit on the gross land rental price, with a maximum credit of $7,000 per year for up to three years.

“Over and over, we hear from young farmers who are hindered from establishing their own businesses due to the lack of affordable land to buy or rent,” said bureau President Rick Ebert, who operates a dairy farm in Derry Township. “Pennsylvania’s farming population is getting older, and more serious conversations are taking place concerning where the next generation of farmers will come from. We need to do everything we can to remove obstacles facing future farmers.”

“The legislation will offer a tangible incentive for landowners to help new farmers and is a way to show the agriculture community that Pennsylvania is open for business,” said Sen. Elder Vogel, who chairs the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and is the bill’s prime sponsor.

Under the bill’s guidelines, the incentive wouldn’t apply in cases where the person buying or renting land has engaged in farming for 10 years or longer.

“Beginning Pennsylvania farmers are struggling to access affordable farmland,” said David Howard, northeast campaigns director for the National Young Farmers Coalition. “High farmland prices, development pressure and a lack of transparent land markets all contribute to this major barrier for young farmers hoping to build successful farming careers.

“This policy approach of providing incentives to landowners has proven successful in Minnesota, where a similar program facilitated more than 400 transactions between asset owners and beginning farmers.”