Land Use Change Tax

“Land Use Change Tax” is an important source of funding for the Sandown Conservation Fund that strengthens Sandown’s ability to accomplish our conservation goals.

 

“Land Use Change Tax” is part of the “current use” program.  Created with the passage of RSA 79-A in 1972, the “current use” program protects open space by establishing a lower tax rate for open space land kept in the “current use” tax assessment.  (This includes open space, agricultural, forest or other large tracts of land.)  The purpose of this program is to prevent landowners from being forced into selling their land to developers simply to pay the property taxes.

 

If a landowner or developer takes land out of “current use” tax assessment for housing developments or any other use, they are subject to a penalty of 10% of the fair market value of the land.  This 10% penalty is the “Land Use Change Tax” that is collected by the Town of Sandown.  The NH Legislature intended that all or a percentage of the penalty collected by a town be deposited into the town’s conservation fund (RSA 79-A:25 II) for the town to purchase open space with the goal of preserving the special rural character of NH towns.