# removal from cfa program taxes



## YooperDave (Nov 9, 2009)

I'm looking to buy 40 acres that is currently in the cfa program. I would like to remove it from this program. Does anyone have any experience as to an average cost for this process? I'm aware of the $200 application fee.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Find out when the current cfa period the property is in will expire. You can call the DNR office in Gaylord and someone there who works in lands will look it up for you. 

If the person you're buying it from doesn't want to remove it on his own for you, there's a reason for that, and it's called having to pay ALL the back taxes on it, for the entire period the property has been in CFA. 

We have a large piece of land down here in Antrim County that the county has been trying to buy through a MNRTF grant...that is jeopardized now because of the CFA penalties, even governments have to pay them, at the present there's no getting out of them except to wait until the current CFA term expires. It's pretty ironclad.


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## Nick Adams (Mar 10, 2005)

Michigan CFA enrollments don't have an expiration date. They run in perpetuity until someone withdraws them. (In Wisconsin the comparable MFL/FCL programs do time out after a period of 25 or 50 years).

The amount of the withdrawl penalty will depend on when the parcel was enrolled in CFA (before or after 1994) and the ad valorem tax rate for the area in which the parcel is located. 

E.g. If the parcel was enrolled after 1994 the withdrawl penalty will be the difference between a) what would have been paid in Ad Valorem taxes on it and b) what was actually paid at the CFA flat rate, over a period of the last 15 years. The period is more like 7 years for parcels enrolled prior to 1994.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-30301_30505_32291---,00.html

-na


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## codybear (Jun 27, 2002)

Linda G. said:


> If the person you're buying it from doesn't want to remove it on his own for you, there's a reason for that, and it's called having to pay ALL the back taxes on it, for the entire period the property has been in CFA.
> .


The part I quoted above is not totally true, it can only go back 7 years as Nick explained.. I just went through this myself. I bought 40 acres 2 years ago and pulled it from CFA shortly after I bought it.. The cost is based on a few different factors as Nick says and shows above.. My total cost was about $5500.. 

HOWEVER, the senate was trying to get a bill passed that will greatly reduce the fee to pull it and as of last summer they told me they were close and it could pass anytime.. I forgot who the Senator is but he is located in the central U.P. and is the one that is pushing this bill.. 

CB


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

The County Planner here talked about that bill. He also said, and so has our local rep and state senator, that it's one of the bills Granholm was sure to veto if it made it as far as her desk. Michigan needs every tax dime it can get right now...I guess. 

I was always told that the CFA enrollments went in 20 year periods, has that changed? Must have. 

The two properties that are jeopardized in Antrim County are each looking at about $35,000 to $42,000 in taxes and penalties.


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## Nick Adams (Mar 10, 2005)

Linda G. said:


> The two properties that are jeopardized in Antrim County are each looking at about $35,000 to $42,000 in taxes and penalties.


They don't have to pay the withdrawl penalty to buy them, only to take them out of CFA. One of the primary objectives of the CFA program was to make it more difficult to develop and fragment undeveloped timberland parcels. Sounds like it is working.

-na


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

It has to come out of the program. They are trying to buy it to make a natural area out of it that would be open to a number of recreational activities, including hunting.


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