I should preface by saying, I am not the owner of the property in question. It is a long story, in short it is family land, shared ownership among 4 parties. One is my mom who has no physical interest int he property so I am basically her representative. Another shared owner, her cousin handles the tax stuff on the place, which isn't a significant amount of money.

Can I write off any portion of money spent on seed. fertilizer, tractor parts/maintenance costs, tools, supplemental feed, supplies, and other general expenses involved in satisfying the requirements to maintain the wildlife exemption? I asked the cousin about it and he said there really is no additional benefits to the wildlife exemption other than the land valuation/property taxes. I get asked for my ag number at feed stores or when buying parts for the tractor and when I say I'm wildlife, no ag, they say it doesn't matter as long as I have the exemption...

It's kind of a weird situation for me, since I don't have my hand on the tiller of ownership or the associated pains, yet I am the primary presence on the property and almost sole investor of time and money maintaining it. Don't get me wrong, even if there is no additional benefits to be had by anyone, the money I spend on the place is worth every last penny to have it for my use anytime I want. I just don't want to be leaving money on the table.

Can someone explain, in layman's terms what, if any, savings I might legally exploit?

Well, next time I talk to my neighbor with the wildlife assessment I’ll ask. Meanwhile, my guess is that you can’t. Write offs for income tax purposes are for business expenses. Ranchers write off feed and fences because it’s a cost of doing business, so they write off the expenses from their revenue. If they never get revenue, they can’t keep pretending to be in business and lose the write offs. Since you’re not in business, I don’t see how you can write off expenses.

Set it up as a business and you can write off everything.

Sounds like your confusing 1d Ag, 1d1 open space, and wildlife property tax valuation/assessment (county property tax rate reduction) with Ag/timber sales tax exemption on qualified purchases ( state comptroller issued number for sales tax).
Your cousin is correct.

The Ag number you’re being asked for when making a purchase is the number issued via the state comptroller office for Ag/timber business related purchases which exempts qualified purchases from state sales tax.

I assume by ‘write off’ you mean from your personal income taxes,, no.

I believe with Wildlife as the other person stated the only benefit is the property tax reduction. If you had a Ag. exemption and showed that you were actually raising livestock or some other type of business that you either showed a profit or loss on your income taxes then you can deduct expenses as long as you show you have actually sold a product. I may have explained it wrong but hopefully it made sense.

Makes perfect sense.

A man can spend his whole life trying to avoid taxes. Pay as little as possible, but, in the end, ya gotta give Caesar his due.

You can get your ag/timber exemption card online at the state comptrollers website.

Wildlife management doesn’t qualify for an Ag/timber sales tax exemption.


—-> Tx comptroller

Thanks for clearing that up y'all

When the wildlife exemption became law, I sold my cows and started managing for wildlife. No more fences to worry about. I think I have to do 3, maybe 4 of the 7 things that are listed and file a report every year that I doubt anyone reads. But, I turn out a multi page document with pictures, etc. Without an exemption, the taxes would kill me. From a tax standpoint the $ is the same.

I do:

Brush piles for small animals. Heck, I cut firewood and stack the small stuff.
Provide water for wildlife. That's my fishing holes.
Supplemental feed for wildlife. Protein pellets, corn and rice bran. Also the fish food that I use in my fish feeders.

But, I no longer get a sales tax break for farm related products like I used to at Tractor Supply, farm diesel, feed stores, etc.

Not all Counties do it the same way. Damn few of them really like the idea due to the lesser tax revenue.

same for me in general. Most of the stuff that I have listed in my plan is things I would be doing anyway for the most part, clearing brush, planting food plots, helping rejuvenate the artesian springs by juniper (cedar) removal ... I no longer have to repair fence every other week due to feral hogs and go chasing livestock on a neighbor's property. I do miss the tax exemption mainly on trailer license plates.

Me 3. Although, once the deer finally started hitting the protein, I'm not sure I'm saving that much in taxes.

^^THIS^^ - Just because the cashier asks for it, doesn't mean it is okay to not pay sales tax on items that are Wildlife specific. Needs to somehow tie to production on the land.

Well it seems like everyone has answered your questions pretty well. If you have any more, feel free to message me. I am a wildlife consultant; I assist landowners in gaining wildlife tax valuations and making improvements to their land.

Short answer is no.