What would Michigan's forest tax programs save on your land?
Compare the Qualified Forest Program and the Commercial Forest program for your parcel, using your township's actual millage. Enter your township, school district, and the taxable value from your tax bill.
Your parcel
Most townships have one. If yours has several, it's printed on your tax bill.
On your February or July tax bill. Taxable value, not assessed (SEV), usually the lower number.
Find the exact number
It's on your summer or winter tax bill and on the assessment notice mailed each February, on the line marked Taxable Value.
Pick your county and township above and a lookup link appears here.
Or estimate it
Taxable value is usually about half of what the land would sell for, and less if you've owned it a while.
Enter acres above to estimate
These programs reduce tax on forest land only. Enter the part of your taxable value that comes from buildings, water frontage, farm fields or other non-forest use, and it is left out of the savings. Your assessor's record card shows the split.
From your tax bill. Dashes optional. Checks MDARD's QFP list and the DNR's Commercial Forest list to see if this parcel is already enrolled.
Estimated annual savings
Qualified Forest Program
$0per year
Keeps the land private. Removes most of the school operating tax.
Commercial Forest
$0per year
A flat $1.35 an acre. Open to the public for hunting and fishing on foot.
These are estimates, not a tax bill. Your assessor, MDARD and the DNR have the final numbers.
$0Current annual tax (non-homestead)
$0Annual tax in Qualified Forest
$0Annual tax in Commercial Forest
$0Ten-year savings, Qualified Forest
$0Qualified Forest savings per acre per year
Get the parcel report
An emailed report with these numbers, the enrollment checklist, the September 1 deadline, and how to get a management plan written for this parcel.
How Qualified Forest enrollment works
20 acres minimum, and mostly forest. Under 40 acres, at least 80% must be productive forest; at 40 acres and up, 50%. Productive forest means land able to grow 20 cubic feet of wood per acre a year, a bar most Michigan forestland clears.
Buildings are allowed but not exempt. School operating tax still applies to the value of any structures, and a building can't push the forested share below the minimum. Homestead acreage already skips these mills, so QFP only helps non-homestead land.
A forest management plan written by an MDARD-registered Qualified Forester. This is the real cost of enrolling. Foresters price a plan by acreage and by how complex the forest is, so ask for a quote before work starts.
Apply by September 1 for the exemption to begin the following tax year. $50 application fee.
You must follow the plan, including scheduled harvests. Withdrawing later is expensive, so treat enrollment as a long-term commitment.