5 Or. Tax 193 | Or. T.C. | 1973
Decision for defendant rendered March 9, 1973.
Appeal dismissed.
Plaintiffs, husband and wife, appealed from a decision of the Oregon State Board of Forestry pursuant to ORS
The court finds from the testimony that the plaintiff husband (hereinafter referred to as "plaintiff") is a university professor with no special training in forestry or in the tax laws respecting forest land in Oregon. He had long owned a former farm site of about 81 acres in Lane County, on or near the borders of the City of Eugene, which was suitable for timber production. In 1970, following a program of tree planting, he requested and obtained from the Director of the Department of Assessment and Taxation, Lane County (hereinafter referred to as the "assessor") a classification of 81 acres, more or less, as "forest land" pursuant to the Western Oregon Ad Valorem Timber Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Timber Tax Act), ORS
In 1965, the plaintiff acquired a tract of approximately two acres (including a homesite) on the coast, west of the City of Tillamook, in Tillamook County, Oregon. As the property taxes increased over the years, it occurred to the plaintiff that this land could be planted in trees and classified as forest land. He paid several visits to the County Assessor of Tillamook County and she finally suggested that the small acreage might more appropriately be placed under the Western Oregon Small Tract Optional Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Optional Tax Act), ORS
Mr. Pearson visited the site and agreed that, with proper planting, it could be approved under the Optional *195 Tax Act. After a lengthy interview, he left with the plaintiff a 12-page pamphlet entitled "State of Oregon Department of Forestry, 'Small Woodland Option Timber Tax Law for Western Oregon,' Information Bulletin No. 1, Rev. September, 1969," and official forms for making application for classification of forest lands in accordance with the Optional Tax Law. Plaintiff described his conversation with Mr. Pearson:
"* * * We also talked about the procedures that would be followed if I were to apply for this under the state program [the Optional Tax Act] — the paper procedures, as well as the actual procedures, the source of — we talked about the source of trees, how many trees to plant, what species of trees, and when they should be planted. We covered those points and then we turned to the program here in Eugene [under the Timber Tax Act]. I told him how happy I was with it, explained that I had planted the 81 acres here [in Lane County] and it was under a similar program. It was under the — it was under the Lane County but, as I understood the programs, they were practically the same. We talked at considerable length about this program in Eugene and the advantages of turning land in the state — barren land throughout the state into timberland and we talked about the purpose of the law with the — what I now know to be two laws, that is, two separate provisions. We talked about the programs."
At no time were negative tax aspects of the program discussed.
The planting of the land in Tillamook was completed about the first of 1970. The plaintiffs made application for the classification of the Tillamook land on the Department of Forestry's form 629-P-8M1 on November 11, 1971. *196
On the face of the form is a box with columns which call for a description of the property under headings of county, account number, code number, tax lot number, total acres in tax lot, estimated forest land acres, and section, township and range. Just above the box is a parenthetical statement reading:
"(List all eligible forest land owned by the APPLICANT OWNER in Western Oregon except land already classified in the name of the applicant owner under this Act:)"
Preparing the application form, the plaintiff listed the Tillamook property, but reviewing the form, gave further consideration to the parenthetical statement. Rereading the Information Bulletin No. 1, referred to above, he noted on page 2 thereof the following:
"Only owners having a total ownership of forest land (see 'forest land' definition, page 1) in western Oregon not in excess of 1,000 acres are entitled to classify forest land under this law. In computing an owner's acreage to determine total ownership, his total ownership must be included even though portions of his forest land may not be eligible for classification. Total ownership includes forest land owned by the applicant owner individually and also any forest land owned by any corporate or other group owner in which the applicant owner holds a share of ownership of 10% or more.
"An owner electing to classify any of his eligible forest lands under this Act must classify all his eligible lands."
The plaintiff was impressed that he should make a record to show that he came within the thousand-acre restriction. Accordingly, he destroyed the first application form and, on the second, in the first horizontal line of the boxes, inserted words and figures indicating that he had 81 acres in Lane County, Code No. 401, *197 Tax Lot No. 3500, containing 81 estimated forest land acres, and added: "(Has been classified as forest land by Lane County.)" He did not indicate section, township or range thereof. He then drew a wavy line across the box, to indicate a separation of the foregoing information from what he intended as his actual application, following which he described his Tillamook land, showing two acres in the tax lot and an estimated forest land area of 1.5 acres, and specifying the section, township and range.
Immediately below the box above described, the form contains the following printed statement:
"The undersigned applicant owner does hereby certify that the above described land includes the entire ownership of eligible forest land, as defined by ORS
321.705 (3) in Western Oregon; that he is the legal owner * * *." (Emphasis supplied.)
ORS
"(3) 'Forest land' means land which is not classified as reforestation land under ORS
321.255 to321.355 [known as the 'Forest Fee and Yield Tax Law'] and which, in the judgment of the State Forester, is suitable for the production of timber and is being utilized primarily for that purpose."
Since the forest fee and yield tax has no bearing on this particular case, any land of the plaintiffs "suitable for the production of timber * * * being utilized primarily for that purpose" must be included within the claim for classification under the Optional Tax Act, including land presently classified under the Timber Tax Act because ORS
*198"(3) An owner electing to classify any of his eligible forest lands under ORS
321.705 to321.765 must classify all of his eligible lands."
The State Forester had sought to make this clear to the applicant by his language and code citations in the official application form and in Information Bulletin No. 1, but the requirement eluded the plaintiff. He thought that since the Lane County tract had already been classified as "forest land," its acreage should be included in the thousand-acre limitation referred to above, but it never occurred to him that it would then be declassified under the Timber Tax Act and be reclassified under the Optional Tax Act.
The plaintiff's application for classification of the Tillamook County land under the Optional Tax Act was approved by the State Forester and, as required by ORS
Until he received this letter, the plaintiff had no idea that his Lane County property would be declassified under one act and then classified under a second act. He thereupon visited Mr. George Saunders, a member of the Lane County assessor's staff who was assigned to timber valuation, showed him the letter of the State Forester of December 29, 1971, and *199
learned about the reclassification. The plaintiff asked Mr. Saunders whether this would make a difference to the plaintiff in the amount of taxes to be paid and learned that there would be a future adjustment because under the Timber Tax Act he had been assessed at $28 per acre, whereas under the Optional Tax Act he would be assessed at $55 an acre in future years. This was acceptable to him. He was still unaware that, under the requirements of ORS
Thereupon, under date of April 15, 1972, the plaintiffs petitioned the State Forester for an "annulment" of the action taken upon the plaintiffs' petition of November 11, 1971, to restore the status quo ante. A hearing before the State Board of Forestry was held on May 18, 1972, a negative decision was made on June 7, 1972, and the plaintiffs were advised thereof by letter of June 15, 1972, the decision being based upon the ground that the board had no legal authority to take the requested action.
The plaintiff is not trained in law but he is a highly educated man who diligently studied the materials available to him, sought to file a complete application and yet never received any intimation that the deferred taxes under the Timber Tax Act would be required of him as a result of his election. On first thought, this might appear to be a case for equitable *200
estoppel (cf. Pilgrim Turkey Pckrs. v. Dept. of Rev.,
[1, 2.] The court has adverted to the possibility that since both the Timber Tax Act and the Optional Tax Act deal with the special taxation of forest lands and represent complementary legislative policies leading to similar goals (see ORS
In each step of the proceedings initiated by the *201
plaintiff, the officers of both county and state governments meticulously followed the requirements of the statutes applicable to them in their respective roles. The plaintiffs' election was binding and no officer had power to change it. Cf.Georgia-Pacific v. Dept. of Rev.,
The order of the defendant is affirmed. *202