“Working in the fields till you get your back burned,” sang Bruce Springsteen in Badlands. This year he may wish to change the lyric to “Owning the fields till you get your tax paid,” thanks to a New Jersey law coming into effect to claim more money for the state from so-called “fake farmers”.
Springsteen is one of several rockers – also including Jon Bon Jovi and the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg – who could face big bills as a result of the changes to the law, which had granted a 98% tax exemption to those working agricultural land.
In 1964, trying to encourage more farming, New Jersey granted tax exemptions to anyone producing more than $500 in agricultural revenue from more than five acres of land. From August, anyone qualifying for the exemptions must make more than $1,000 from farming, submit proof and agree to regular inspections.
Though the increase is not great, it is intended to sort the fake farmers from the real ones and rockers are set to suffer. A 2010 investigation by the Asbury Park Press found that Weinberg paid just $122 tax on 34 acres of land, because he sells wood, and Jon Bon Jovi paid $104 on 7.1 acres, on which he raised honey bees.
Springsteen paid around $4,600 on the 200 acres around his home, whereas the three acres of his house itself were subject to $138,000 in property taxes.
However, the Boss has supporters. Ed Wengryn of the New Jersey Farm Bureau told New Jersey newspaper the Record: “Springsteen’s farm is a real organic farm.” He said the rocker leased land to active farmers and “if the land is being farmed, [he] should get preferential treatment when it comes to paying property taxes”.
When Bon Jovi’s taxes were first revealed, his publicist said: “Jon is scrupulous about paying his fair share of taxes. The exemption for raising honey bees existed long before he purchased that land, and he continues to employ a beekeeper and raise honeybees.”
