S-4018               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 4772

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Senator McDermott

Read first time 1/22/86 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

AN ACT Relating to forest land taxation; and amending RCW 84.33.035.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 1, chapter 204, Laws of 1984 and RCW 84.33.035 are each amended to read as follows:

          Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

          (1) "Composite property tax rate" for a county means the total amount of property taxes levied upon forest lands by all taxing districts in the county other than the state, divided by the total assessed value of all forest land in the county.

          (2) "Forest land" means forest land which is classified or designated forest land under this chapter.

          (3) "Harvested" means the time when in the ordinary course of business the quantity of timber by species is first definitely determined.  The amount harvested shall be determined by the Scribner Decimal C Scale or other prevalent measuring practice adjusted to arrive at substantially equivalent measurements, as approved by the department of revenue.

          (4) "Harvester" means every person who from the person's own land or from the land of another under a right or license granted by lease or contract, either directly or by contracting with others for the necessary labor or mechanical services, fells, cuts, or takes timber for sale or for commercial or industrial use.  The term does not include persons performing under contract the necessary labor or mechanical services for a harvester.

          (5) "Stumpage value of timber" means the appropriate stumpage value shown on tables prepared by the department of revenue under RCW 84.33.091, provided that for timber harvested from public land and sold under a competitive bidding process, stumpage value shall mean that actual amount paid to the seller in cash or other consideration.  Whenever payment for the stumpage includes considerations other than cash, the value shall be the fair market value of the other consideration, provided that if the other consideration is permanent roads, the value of the roads shall be the appraised value as appraised by the seller.

          (6) "Timber" means forest trees, standing or down, on privately or publicly owned land, and except as provided in RCW 84.33.170 includes Christmas trees.  It shall also include forest trees on lands sold to any governmental agency by warranty deed or contract where the seller reserved to itself the right to take all merchantable timber for a specific period of years, or in perpetuity, or forest trees that any governmental agency, by quit claim deed, as partial consideration for payment of the purchase price, conveyed for a specific period of years, or in perpetuity, all timber trees, standing, growing, or laying on the described land to the taxpayer.

          (7) "Timber assessed value" for a county means a value, calculated by the department of revenue before October 1 of each year, equal to the total stumpage value of timber harvested from privately owned land in the county during the most recent four calendar quarters for which the information is available multiplied by a ratio.  The numerator of the ratio is the rate of tax imposed by the county under RCW 84.33.051 for the year of the calculation.  The denominator of the ratio is the composite property tax rate for the county for taxes due in the year of the calculation, expressed as a percentage of assessed value.

          (8) "Timber assessed value" for a taxing district means the timber assessed value for the county multiplied by a ratio.  The numerator of the ratio is the total assessed value of forest land in the taxing district.  The denominator is the total assessed value of forest land in the county.  As used in this section, "assessed value of forest land" means the assessed value of forest land for taxes due in the year the timber assessed value for the county is calculated.