Question: What is Greenbelt as it refers to land?
Answer: The Utah Farmland Assessment Act (FAA, also called the Greenbelt Act) allows qualifying agricultural property to be assessed and taxed based upon its productive capability instead of the prevailing market value. If a piece of land is being farmed and is currently in “Greenbelt Tax Status”, the landowner is taxed at a lower rate. This was to give farmers a discount on taxes so that they could afford to farm and make a profit. Lets say a Buyer purchases land that has been taxed for 10 years in Greenbelt status, and Buyer desires to develop the land and does not want to continue to farm the parcel. In section 3.3 of our Land REPC it states the following: Greenbelt. If any portion of the Property is presently assessed as “Greenbelt” the payment of any roll-back taxes assessed against the Property shall be paid for by: [ ] Seller [ ] Buyer [ ] Split Equally Between Buyer and Seller [ ] Other. So depending how the REPC is checked, Buyer, Seller, or possibly both parties would have to pay a normal “Non Greenbelt status” tax on the property up to as far as 5 years previous. This is called a rollback tax.
Here is another article to explain:https://www.utahfarmbureau.org/Article/Greenbelt