Ag Exemption and Rollback Taxes in Bastrop County: What Land Buyers Need to Know

Almost every land listing in Bastrop County mentions an “ag exemption.” Almost nobody explains what it actually is, what it takes to keep it, or who pays when it goes away. Getting this wrong is one of the more expensive mistakes available to a land buyer here, so it is worth twenty minutes of reading.

I am a REALTOR®, not a tax professional or an attorney. Verify anything that affects your money with Bastrop CAD at (512) 303-1930 or your own advisor. Nothing here is tax advice.

It is not an exemption

Start here, because the name causes the problem. What everyone calls an ag exemption is formally 1-d-1 open-space appraisal, and it is a valuation method, not an exemption.

The land is still fully taxable. What changes is the basis: instead of being appraised at market value, it is appraised on its capacity to produce agricultural products — its productivity value. The difference is usually dramatic, which is why the savings are real and why the recapture stings.

Once you understand it as a valuation method rather than a discount, rollback taxes stop being a surprise.

What it takes to qualify

Two tests, and both matter:

Current use. The land must be currently devoted principally to agricultural use, to a degree of intensity generally accepted in the area. That last phrase is doing a lot of work — see below.
History. The land must have been in agricultural or timber production for at least five of the preceding seven years.

The application is Comptroller Form 50-129, filed with Bastrop CAD. The regular deadline is before May 1. A late application may still be accepted before the Appraisal Review Board approves the records, usually with a penalty, so contact the district immediately if you miss April 30.

Bastrop County’s actual intensity standards

This is the part that catches buyers, because “generally accepted in the area” is evaluated locally. The figures below summarize Bastrop CAD’s agricultural appraisal manual; the district describes them as general guidelines and may handle exceptions case by case:

Improved pasture grazing — minimum 15 acres, stocked at one animal unit per 3 to 6 acres, supporting at least five animal units
Native pasture grazing — minimum 25 acres, one animal unit per 5 to 15 acres
Hay production — minimum 10 acres, roughly 3,000 pounds per acre
Row crops — roughly 13 to 16 acres depending on the crop
Irrigated orchard — minimum 5 acres; dryland or native orchard, 10 acres
Beekeeping — minimum 5 acres and maximum 20 acres, with at least six hives, then one additional hive per 2.5 acres

Read that first line again. A ten-acre tract with three cows will not qualify for grazing in Bastrop County. The most common practical route for a 5-to-20-acre tract is beekeeping, and it requires a real minimum of six hives — not two boxes at the back of the property.

Confirm the current standards with the district before you count on any of this. The manual gets revised.

Wildlife management — the alternative people misunderstand

Wildlife management valuation lets you keep the productivity valuation without running livestock. It is popular, and it is widely misexplained in two ways.

First: the land must already qualify. You cannot start raw land in wildlife management. The property must already be under 1-d-1 open-space or timber appraisal at the time you convert to wildlife use.

Second: it does not lower your taxes further. It keeps the same productivity valuation. The benefit is flexibility, not savings.

To qualify you must perform at least three of seven approved practices: habitat control, erosion control, predator control, providing supplemental water, providing supplemental food, providing shelter, and census counts. Submit the required wildlife management plan with the appraisal application. Review the Texas Parks and Wildlife guidance and Bastrop CAD’s current forms before filing.

Rollback taxes — and why most of what you will read is wrong

Here is the part worth getting exactly right, because the internet is full of outdated versions of it.

For 1-d-1 open-space land, current Texas law uses a three-year lookback and does not add rollback interest merely because the qualifying use changes.

The additional tax is generally the difference between what was paid under productivity valuation and what would have been owed at market value for the preceding three years in which the land received the lower appraisal. Penalty and interest can still apply if a billed rollback tax becomes delinquent. See the Texas Comptroller’s agricultural and timber appraisal guidance.

It used to be five years plus 7 percent interest. House Bill 1743 in 2019 cut it to three years and lowered interest to 5 percent. House Bill 3833 in 2021 deleted the interest entirely. So if you read “five years,” or “three years plus 5 percent interest,” the source is out of date — and a surprising number of real estate articles still say exactly that.

What triggers it — and what does not

A sale does not trigger rollback. Bastrop CAD says so plainly: selling the property does not trigger the 1-d-1 rollback. What triggers it is a change of use — ending agricultural operations or diverting the property to a non-agricultural use. The chief appraiser makes that determination, and a tax lien attaches to the land on the date the change occurs.

There are statutory exceptions, including right-of-way sales, condemnation and transfers to governmental entities.

The trap for buyers

Follow the sequence. The seller may have benefited from productivity valuation for years. After closing, if the new owner stops the qualifying agricultural operation or diverts some or all of the land to a non-agricultural use, the chief appraiser may determine that a change of use occurred and impose rollback tax on the affected land. Building, subdividing, or adding another use is not described here as an automatic result; the facts, acreage affected, and continued agricultural activity matter.

The possibility is foreseeable and should be addressed before closing. The tax lien follows the land, and a purchase contract may allocate responsibility between buyer and seller, but that private agreement does not control the appraisal district’s statutory determination or collection rights. Buyers should have the proposed language reviewed by their broker, title company, and attorney.

The other half of the trap is quieter: if you buy ag-valued land and simply let the use lapse — you never run cattle, never file, never keep the hives — you can lose the valuation and trigger recapture without ever intending to develop anything. If you want to keep the valuation, you have to keep actually doing the thing.

A practical checklist before you buy ag land here

Confirm the current valuation on the parcel at esearch.bastropcad.org — do not take the listing’s word for it.
Ask what the qualifying use is and get evidence: lease, livestock counts, hay records, hive counts.
Ask for the ag lease if a neighbor runs cattle on it, and find out whether it survives the sale.
Decide what you plan to do with it before closing. If the plan may end or reduce the qualifying use, ask Bastrop CAD how the proposed facts could affect the appraisal and estimate the potential rollback on the affected acreage.
Negotiate who pays rollback in the contract.
If you intend to keep the valuation, know the intensity standard for your acreage and have a plan to meet it in your first year.
File by the regular deadline. Submit before May 1. If you miss it, contact Bastrop CAD immediately; a late application may be possible before the ARB approves the records, but a penalty may apply.

One more thing worth knowing

Productivity valuation lowers what you pay, but a lender looks at what a property is, not how it is appraised for taxes. Ag land, raw land and land with an unfinished use are financed differently from a house — usually with more down and a shorter term. If you are buying acreage, talk to a lender who actually does land loans in Central Texas before you fall for a tract.

Looking at acreage in Bastrop County?

I check the appraisal record on every tract before my clients get attached — current valuation, taxing jurisdictions, and what it would take to keep or lose the ag valuation. I can help you identify the records and questions that deserve closer review before an offer, while Bastrop CAD and your tax or legal advisers provide the controlling guidance.

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Call or Text (512) 993-8488

Written by Bre Meador, REALTOR® — All City Real Estate, Bastrop County, TX · U.S. Army veteran and former nurse · TREC #0835116
Read client reviews. Last updated August 5, 2026. This page is general information from a licensed REALTOR®, not tax, legal, engineering or insurance advice.