# Use Value Appraisal (Current Use) for forest land

> Tax incentive from Vermont Department of Taxes, Division of Property Valuation and Review, with the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (State) for VT, United States.

Official page: https://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/current-use
Source: https://treerm.org/residents/programs/vt-use-value-appraisal-current-use · Updated 2026-11-08 · Status: Open

**What you get:** Enrolled forest land is taxed on its use value ($208 per acre for 2026) instead of its market value

Vermont's Use Value Appraisal program, created in 1978 and now called Current Use, taxes enrolled farm and forest land on its value for producing wood or food rather than its development value. The Current Use Advisory Board set the 2026 use value at $208 per acre for forest land, $156 per acre for forest land more than a mile from a Class I, II or III road, and $537 per acre for agricultural land. More than 19,000 parcels totaling over 2.5 million acres are enrolled. Enrolled forest land must follow a forest management plan approved by the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, updated every 10 years, and owners file a Forest Management Activity Report each year there is management activity. The state records a lien on enrolled land; if land is developed or withdrawn, a Land Use Change Tax is assessed on the developed portion.

## Who qualifies

Forest land parcels must contain at least 25 acres that will be enrolled as Managed Forestland and be managed under an approved forest management plan, typically prepared by a Vermont-licensed consulting forester. House sites, including a minimum of two acres around dwellings, camps and mobile homes, and land under other development are not eligible and continue to be taxed at fair market value. Owners do not have to enroll the whole parcel.

## How to apply

Start by contacting your FPR County Forester about eligibility and plan requirements. Apply online through myVTax or on paper with form CU-301, a map meeting the Current Use Mapping Standards and a $100 application fee (up to seven owners; $15 more for eight or more). Applications must be received or postmarked by September 1 for the following tax year; the signed forest management plan and map are due to the County Forester by October 1. Current Use office: tax.CurrentUse@vermont.gov, 802-828-5860 ext. 2.

**When:** Applications due September 1; forest management plans due October 1; activity reports due February 1

**For:** Landowners, Farmers

> Note: Deadlines, fees, forms and 2026 values come from the Department of Taxes page; plan rules and the County Forester role from fpr.vermont.gov/forest/UseValueAppraisal; the 25-acre minimum, two-acre house-site exclusion and the Land Use Change Tax rate (10 percent of the full fair market value of developed land) come from FPR's 2023 UVA brochure and may have been revised. Revised UVA Minimum Management and Plan Standards took effect May 31, 2026.