Clean and Green Rollback Taxes in Bucks County

A surprising amount of Upper and Central Bucks land is enrolled in Clean and Green, and many owners do not find out what that means until they try to sell, subdivide, or settle an estate. The program cuts the property tax bill every year the land stays in a qualifying use. The price of that discount is a recapture tax, called a rollback, that comes due the moment the use changes. On land that has been enrolled for decades in a county with assessments as far below market as Bucks County's, the rollback can run well into five or six figures. This page explains how the program works, what triggers the rollback, and the separate inheritance tax rules that apply when enrolled farmland passes at death.

What Enrollment Does to Your Assessment

Clean and Green is the common name for the Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act of 1974, Act 319, codified at 72 P.S. §§ 5490.1 to 5490.13. Normally your land is assessed on its fair market value, which in Bucks County means whatever a developer would pay for it. Clean and Green replaces that with a use value: what the land is worth as a farm or a woodlot, ignoring its development potential. In townships like Bedminster, Tinicum, Springfield, or Plumstead, where road frontage sells by the building lot, the gap between use value and market value is enormous, and so is the annual savings.

Three land use categories qualify under 72 P.S. § 5490.3: agricultural use (farmed for the preceding three years, and either at least ten contiguous acres or an anticipated yearly gross income of at least $2,000), agricultural reserve (at least ten contiguous acres of noncommercial open space, which must be open to the public for outdoor recreation or scenic enjoyment without charge), and forest reserve (at least ten contiguous acres of woodland). The owner applies to the Bucks County Board of Assessment; under 72 P.S. § 5490.4, the application must be submitted on or before June 1 to take effect for the following tax year, the processing fee is capped at $50, and the approved application is recorded with the Recorder of Deeds. That recording matters: enrollment runs with the land, shows up in a title search, and binds whoever owns the parcel next. Enrollment continues automatically until a change in use ends it.

Keep the program separate in your mind from the Common Level Ratio. The CLR converts ordinary assessed values to market values for transfer and inheritance tax purposes; our page on assessed value and the CLR explains that math. Clean and Green is a different discount layered on top of an already low Bucks County assessment, which is why the numbers on enrolled farm parcels look so small.

What Triggers Rollback Taxes

The statute is blunt. Under 72 P.S. § 5490.5a, if the owner changes the use of any enrolled tract to one that no longer qualifies, or removes the land from the program, the land is subject to rollback taxes plus interest on each year's rollback tax at the rate of 6% per year. The rollback is the difference between the taxes actually paid at the preferential use value and the taxes that would have been paid at the normal assessment, for the current year and prior years, reaching back to the seven most recent tax years once the land has been enrolled that long. 72 P.S. § 5490.2.

The mechanics come from 72 P.S. § 5490.8. Rollback taxes become due on the date the use changes, they are payable by whoever owns the land at that time, and unpaid rollback taxes are a lien on the property collectible like delinquent taxes. Once the county assessor receives notice of a proposed change in use or a split-off, the assessor must calculate the rollback within five working days and notify the owner, and, in the case of a sale, the prospective buyer if known.

Two triggers matter far more than the rest in practice: building on the land (or letting a buyer build on it), and dividing the land the wrong way. A simple sale, by itself, is not a trigger. Under 72 P.S. § 5490.6(a.3), a transfer of the entire enrolled tract to a new owner continues the preferential assessment with no rollback, unless and until someone changes the use.

Split-Off vs. Separation

The statute draws a line, in 72 P.S. §§ 5490.2 and 5490.6, between two ways of dividing enrolled land, and the difference is expensive. A general summary: a separation divides the land into two or more tracts that each still qualify for the program, for example splitting a 60-acre farm into two 30-acre farms that both stay in agricultural use. A separation by itself triggers no rollback, though if any separated tract changes to a nonqualifying use within seven years of the separation, the entire separated land is exposed. A split-off carves out a piece that does not qualify, typically a building lot. The default rule is severe: a split-off subjects both the piece carved off and the entire remaining tract to rollback taxes, and the courts apply it even where the use never changes: in a Berks County case the Commonwealth Court has since reaffirmed, a mother's conveyance of a 3.56-acre tract to one son kept the land in farming but still triggered rollback on everything, because the new tract was under the 10-acre floor. The trigger has limits, though. Rollback falls only on "the landowner who conducts the split-off," so in Maula v. Northampton County Division of Assessment, 149 A.3d 442 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2016), the Commonwealth Court held that a county tax sale of one parcel, after the owner failed to pay $266.12 in taxes, was not a landowner-conducted split-off, and the county could not impose $55,000 in rollback on the rest of the farm.

There is a narrow safe harbor for small residential lots. In general terms, an owner may split off up to two acres per year (or the municipality's minimum residential lot size where zoning requires two to three acres) for a residence to be occupied by the person receiving the land, capped over time at the lesser of ten acres or 10% of the enrolled tract. A split-off within those limits triggers rollback only on the lot carved off, not the whole farm. The acreage limits, the occupancy requirement, and the running total are all traps for the unwary, so have the specific plan checked against the statute and the county's records before any deed is signed. This is general information, not advice on a particular subdivision; the details of your enrollment and your township's zoning control the outcome.

Selling or Subdividing Enrolled Land

An owner in the program agreed, on the application itself, to give the county assessor 30 days' notice of any proposed change in use, change in ownership of a portion of the land, or division or conveyance. 72 P.S. § 5490.4(c.1). In a sale, the practical questions are who pays the rollback and when it comes due. Because rollback liability lands on the owner at the time of the change in use, a buyer who purchases enrolled land and then builds on it inherits the entire rollback bill, including the seven years of savings the seller enjoyed. Sophisticated buyers know this and negotiate accordingly: an agreement of sale for enrolled land should say expressly who bears the rollback if the buyer's intended use ends the enrollment, and the title company will flag the recorded Clean and Green application either way.

Sellers face the mirror image. If you subdivide before selling, the subdivision itself may be the trigger, and the rollback becomes your problem at closing rather than the buyer's problem later. Where the family is keeping the land, remember that the transfer tax analysis is separate: many family conveyances are exempt from realty transfer tax even though the Clean and Green analysis still has to be run. See our pages on family transfers and realty transfer tax and the full list of transfer tax exemptions.

Death, Heirs, and Estates

Death alone does not trigger rollback. The land passes to the estate or the heirs with its preferential assessment intact, and the statute contains a specific protection for family divisions at death. Under 72 P.S. § 5490.6(d), when enrolled land is divided among the decedent's Class A inheritance tax beneficiaries (the close-family class), no rollback is due even if the division leaves one or more tracts too small to qualify on their own. If one heir later changes the use of his or her piece, only that heir's tract bears the rollback; the siblings who kept farming are protected.

The exposure shows up when the estate sells. An executor who sells the farm to a developer, or who subdivides to raise cash for distributions, can trigger the rollback against the estate, and the lien follows the land if it goes unpaid. Before listing enrolled land, the executor should get the assessor's rollback calculation in hand, disclose the enrollment to buyers, and price the property with the rollback allocation resolved in the agreement of sale. An executor who misses this can turn the estate's largest asset into its largest liability dispute.

The Separate Inheritance Tax Angle

Rollback taxes are a county real estate tax issue. Pennsylvania inheritance tax is a separate system with its own farmland rules, and for many Bucks County farm estates it is the bigger number. Real estate passing to children is ordinarily taxed at 4.5%, and to siblings at 12%. 72 P.S. § 9116(a). Two exemptions can take qualifying farmland out of the taxable estate entirely. Under 72 P.S. § 9111(s), a transfer of real estate devoted to the business of agriculture to members of the same family is exempt, provided the land stays in the business of agriculture for seven years after the death, produces a yearly gross income of at least $2,000, and is reported on a timely filed return; the owners must certify qualification to the Department of Revenue annually, and if the land drops out within the seven years, the tax comes back with interest running from the date of death. Under 72 P.S. § 9111(s.1), transfers of agricultural use property, agricultural reserve, or forest reserve to lineal descendants or siblings are exempt when reported on a timely filed return.

Both exemptions are claimed on Schedule AU (REV-1197) of the inheritance tax return, and they apply for deaths on or after July 1, 2012. The definitions in § 9111(s.1) track the same Clean and Green categories discussed above, so land that qualifies for preferential assessment during life is often the same land that can pass tax free at death, if the return is filed on time and the schedule is actually claimed. Our REV-1500 schedules guide walks through where Schedule AU fits in the return. The seven-year recapture under § 9111(s) deserves respect: heirs who claim the business-of-agriculture exemption and then sell to a developer in year three owe the inheritance tax they skipped, with interest, and the Commonwealth holds a lien until it is paid.

Planning Moves Before a Transfer

Most Clean and Green disasters are avoidable with a title search and a phone call made before the deed is drawn. If you own or expect to inherit enrolled Bucks County land, the working checklist looks like this. Confirm enrollment and its start date through the Board of Assessment and the recorded application, because the rollback reach depends on how long the land has been in the program. Get the assessor's written rollback calculation before signing any agreement of sale or subdivision plan, and allocate the rollback in the contract rather than litigating it later. If a child needs a building lot, structure it inside the residential split-off limits instead of an ordinary subdivision. If the goal is keeping the farm in the family at death, coordinate the will or trust with the Class A division rule and the Schedule AU exemptions so the estate claims them on a timely return. And if the plan is to sell for development, compare the rollback cost against the tax savings still accruing, because sometimes the right answer is simply to pay the rollback and be done with it. If the assessor calculates a rollback you believe is wrong, the statute provides an appeal route through the county board; the deadlines are short, so act quickly, and see our guide to Bucks County assessment appeals for how the board process works.

This page is general information about Pennsylvania law, not legal or tax advice about your land. Clean and Green outcomes turn on the enrollment records, the deed, the township's zoning, and the exact division proposed. For advice on your situation, speak with a lawyer before signing or recording anything.

Legal and factual content on this page was last verified: Aug. 2026. If you are reading this significantly after that date, confirm key provisions with current statute text or contact our office.