Virginia law allows for localities adopting a program of special assessments for agriculture, horticulture, forestry and/or open space lands for their land to be taxed based on the value of the land in one of these four uses (use value) instead of its market value. This document describes methods and procedures used to calculate use values for agriculture and horticulture land based on an income and rental rate approach.

The purpose of this publication is to help farmland owners, farmers, and other interested citizens to better understand the use value taxation program in Virginia.

The history of Virginia fence law began not long after the first English settlement was founded in 1607. Virginia fence law has transcended from requiring landowners to fence in their livestock beginning in 1631, to requiring landowners to fence-out unwanted livestock beginning in 1643, to the modern-day rule granting localities the authority to return to a fence-in rule of law. This overview sets forth the history of Virginia fence law and explains the modern-day rule of law, including what constitutes a lawful fence and when you need one.

The publication provides an overview of the property tax reassessment process in Virginia. It explains why tax reassessment is important, and what the typical process looks like for Virginia jurisdictions. The paper gives a breakdown on how often reassessments are conducted, how the process differs for counties versus cities, and a step-by-step breakdown of the process for contractors or state officials. In addition to reassessment methodologies, the publication also provides figures showing statistical breakdowns of reassessment factors such as contracting or conducting in-house, the use of a physical inspection, and common reassessment intervals.