Word: lande
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Minnesota has required reporting of foreign land buyers since 1977. Only 29,000 of its 30 million acres are foreign controlled. Last year, there was not a single sale of land to a nonresident alien...
Could the foreigners be buying elsewhere and skipping these rich farm states? Not likely. Says Garrett Cole, vice president of Oppenheimer Industries, a Kansas City firm that deals in agricultural land: "In a single year, no more than 3% of all farm land comes up for sale, and I'd be surprised if more than 2% [of that] is bought by foreigners...
...true that more foreigners are acquiring land than ever before, but the numbers are still very small. In Texas, Prince Franz Joseph, the 72-year-old monarch of the 40,000-acre Principality of Liechtenstein, bought 16,000 acres of ranch land. Across the country, other rich aliens are doing the same. Germans and Italians are the heaviest investors, followed by the British, French, Belgians, Canadians and Dutch. Neither the Arabs nor the Japanese seem to be in the market. Most of the buyers are good neighbors who often lease the land back to Americans and pour in development money...
Opponents of sales to foreigners make the false claim that foreigners enjoy tax advantages over U.S. farmers. The only U.S. tax that a nonresident alien owner escapes is on capital gains if he sells his land. Otherwise foreigners pay property and income taxes like all Americans, and any deductions they use are available to U.S. farmers as well...
...main objection from farmers is that foreign buyers are paying excessively high prices. That in turn, say the opponents, pushes up the value of land owned and prevents young people from entering farming or expanding in the business...