Single farm enterprise

Where multiple parcels of farm land are used to operate a single farming enterprise, a person may only be required to pay the fixed charge / municipal charge once by applying for the single farming enterprise exemption.

 To apply, a person must submit an application to the councils where the relevant properties are located. You must notify the councils if the circumstances relating to your application change, as this may affect your eligibility for the exemption.

• The FSPL fixed charge must be paid on at least one leviable land which forms part of the SFE (the lands do not need to be located in a single council municipality).
• The municipal charge must be paid on at least one rateable land within the single farming enterprise in each council.

 

DEFINITIONS

Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012

Single farm enterprise means 2 or more parcels of leviable land—

(a) which—

(i) are farm land; and

(ii) are farmed as a single enterprise; and

(iii) are occupied by the same person or persons—

whether or not the parcels of land are contiguous or are located in the same municipal district; or

(b) which—

(i) as to all the properties except one, are farm land farmed as a single enterprise occupied by the same person or persons; and

(ii) as to one property contiguous with at least one of the other properties, is the principal place of residence of that person or one of those persons.

Valuation of Land Act 1960

farm land means any rateable land—

(a) that is not less than 2 hectares in area; and

(b) that is used primarily for grazing (including agistment), dairying, pig-farming, poultry-farming, fish-farming, tree-farming, bee-keeping, viticulture, horticulture, fruit-growing or the growing of crops of any kind or for any combination of those activities; and

(c) that is used by a business—

(i) that has a significant and substantial commercial purpose or character; and

(ii) that seeks to make a profit on a continuous or repetitive basis from its activities on the land; and

(iii) that is making a profit from its activities on the land, or that has a reasonable prospect of making a profit from its activities on the land if it continues to operate in the way that it is operating;