Pay land tax, NAU urges farmers

The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) has urged all agricultural land owners to pay their land tax for the 2012/13 financial assessment year. A recent ruling by the High Court of Namibia on the validity of the Valuation Court, and a court application that challenges the current legislation of which land tax is payable, have apparently created confusion among farm owners on whether they should pay their land tax or not. The union explained that the payment of land tax due on September 30 was determined by the Valuation Court in 2008 based on the old valuation roll. "Therefore it should be the same amount that agricultural land owners paid during the past four years," according to the NAU. In terms of the Agricultural Land Reform Act of 1995, failure to pay land tax might result in a fine of N$20 000 or imprisonment for five years, or both. "This legislation is valid and stands until declared unlawful or unconstitutional by a High Court judgment or even a judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of an appeal," said the NAU. The new valuation roll, which will be valid for five years, is set to replace the previous farm valuation roll, which was valid until the end of March this year. The previous valuation roll is no longer valid and therefore there are no farm values legally in place on which the land tax can be calculated for the next five financial years. Farm owners objecting against the provisional valuation roll complained that sharp increases in the official land tax value of their farms are unrealistic, and that the new valuations were not done in a rational manner. The Valuation Court was tasked with hearing farm owners' objections against the valuation of their farms in the provisional valuation roll, and had to rule on those objections and change farm valuations where objections were upheld. However the planned sitting of the Valuation Court was declared null and void by the High Court in Windhoek. WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT