Ag Land Taxes Equal 51% of Net Farm Income

Property taxes on agricultural land in 2017 equaled 51 percent of Nebraska farmers and ranchers’ net farm income for the year. That’s one of the findings of an investigation undertaken by Dr. Dave Aiken of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Using USDA Economic Research Service data, Aiken calculated the percentage of net farm income that went to pay taxes on agricultural land for Nebraska and the U.S. as a whole for each year from 1950 to 2017. Aiken found, “that the percentage of net farm income that Nebraska farmers and ranchers paid for property taxes over this period was 46% higher than the comparable figures for US farmers and ranchers.” Aiken concludes, “Nebraska farmers and ranchers carry a property tax load almost one and a half times as great as US farmers and ranchers in general.”