Federal and state income tax laws pertaining to forest landowners are examined. Income tax liabilities are calculated for hypothetical forest landowners in two income brackets across the 41 states in the U.S. which impose a comprehensive income tax. The income tax liability is calculated to illustrate the effects of differential state tax treatment on a representative forest landowner with two different income levels ($50,000 and $110,000) who harvests $200,000 worth of timber in a given tax year. After-tax land expectation values for a forest landowner are also calculated to illustrate the effects of tax planning on returns to timber investment over time. Twenty-eight states utilize the federal adjusted gross income (AGI) as their tax base. Thirty-three states provide a personal exemption in the form of a credit or deduction. A standard deduction is allowed in twenty-six states. The minimum tax rates range from zero percent in Delaware to six percent in Minnesota and North Carolina. Maximum rates range from 4.5 percent in Connecticut to 11 percent in Montana. Four states allow a capital gains exclusion while two others have maximum capital gains rates that are lower than the highest ordinary state tax rate. In the South, landowners have the lowest state tax liability in Louisiana and the highest liability in North Carolina for both income levels. In the Midwest and Northeast, landowners in the medium income ($50,000) level have the lowest tax liability in North Dakota and the highest in Minnesota. Landowners in the high income level ($110,000) have the lowest tax liability in Pennsylvania and the highest liability in Minnesota. In the West, medium-income level Idaho and Montana landowners have the lowest and highest state tax liabilities, respectively. High level income landowners have the lowest liability in Arizona and the highest liability in Montana. The effects of tax planning on a forest landowner's potential revenues are calculated using land expectation methodology. Six different scenarios are used to examine the effect of common omissions and mistakes made by a typical landowner. In each successive scenario, the landowners forego certain tax benefit(s) that, in turn, lower their LEV. Different representative state tax rates and discount rates are used as a sensitivity analysis to find a range of values that could potentially occur. The treatment of timber revenue as an ordinary gain provides the largest decline in land expectation value in most cases. / Master of Science

In the last two decades, many firms in the U.S. forest products industry have either divested their timberlands or converted their corporate structures from C corporations to real estate investment trusts (REITs). This study hypothesizes that this large-scale timberland ownership change affects the financial performance of firms involved in divestitures and on timber supply and, as a result, the economic surplus of producers and consumers in the U.S. timber markets. These issues have not been adequately addressed in existing literature. Event analysis and equilibrium displacement models were employed to address firm financial performance in the capital markets and welfare implications in U.S. timber markets, respectively. The capital markets responded to divestiture events by significantly improving buying firms’ and REITs’ market value. Annual average timberland ownership changes resulted in a net reduction of timber supply which, in turn, caused total social surplus to decrease by $43 million on annual rate of timberland ownership change basis. Compared to over $33 billion U.S. timber markets, this surplus reduction was small. Thus, this study helps justify timberland ownership change decisions and explains the nature and extent of surplus shifts among producers and consumers when timberlands change hands.

Over seven million acres of non-industrial private forest land are controlled by the forest industry under long-term lease agreements. While many landowners appear to be content with these arrangements, others are dissatisfied. Landowners should be aware of the potential benefits, problems, and costs of the long-term commitments.

Med hjälp av årlig prisstatistik avseende försäljningar av skogsfastigheter (1995-2020) bedömer studien skogliga investeringars marknadsrisk samt estimerar dess diskonteringsränta. Analysen sker inom de teoretiska ramverken Capital Asset Pricing Theory (CAPM) samt Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). Utöver korrelation med marknaden analyseras ett antal riskfaktorer så som inflation, förändringar i bostadspriser, BNP samt förändringar i virkespriser. CAPM beräknas för olika löptider där den riskfria räntan matchas mot investeringens tidshorisont. Resultatet ligger i linje med tidigare forskning och visar att skogliga investeringar har en låg marknadsrisk och troligen kan ge ett skydd mot inflation. Val av korrekt löptid för den riskfria räntan har betydande effekt på den estimerade diskonteringsräntan.

In some countries forests are state or community owned and there is no market for forest land. However, in many countries timberland can be privately owned and thus there exists an active market for it. In Estonia and Sweden private timberland ownership is very high, 54% and 66% of the total timberland area respectively. Since property transactions in general require valuations, the need for timberland valuations is high in these countries. There are several timberland valuation approaches discussed and analysed in timberland valuation literature. Three of the most prominent approaches are the income approach, the sales comparison approach and the cost approach. Although timberland valuation is well-founded in theory, it is often rather different in practice. The timberland valuation methods as well as the underlying assumptions in the methods can vary significantly across countries and regions. The dissimilarities and confusion in timberland valuations are, at least to some extent, related to the circumstance that existing valuation standards comprehend very little guidance regarding timberland appraisal. The thesis in hand is a comparative case study, in which the same interview questions were asked from several timberland appraisers in Estonia and Sweden in order to find out how timberland is appraised in these countries. It was found that the timberland valuation approaches used within a country are rather similar, but differ when comparing Estonia with Sweden. The assumptions used in the valuation approaches vary between countries as well as across companies within a country. In Estonia 3 the appraisers use only the income approach to value a timberland, while in Sweden the appraisers use both the comparable sales approach and the income approach. There are, however, substantial differences in the way the income method is carried out in each country. In Sweden the appraisers use the income approach, to a great extent, in accordance with scientific literature, which cannot be said about the Estonian appraisers. The main differences in the income approach across the countries are the future cash flow treatment, the premerchantable timber value treatment and the length of the time period in the income approach. Along with many other details about timberland valuation practises in Estonia and Sweden, the study also found that none of the appraisers are using the uncertainty intervals in their valuation reports. The consistency and solidarity of Swedish timberland valuation practice results from the existence of the guidelines and recommendations along with the valuation program provided by the National Land Survey of Sweden. Latter is a clear sign of the importance of valuation standards and guidelines.

Forest plantations provide essential services for human beings. More recently, population and economic growth has increasingly intensified the demand for forest products. Forest activities are expanding to new areas due to low land prices and governmental incentives in Brazil. Among others; Timberland Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) are the type of invertors that have significantly increased their participation in the timberland market. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate investor\'s strategies and the mains aspects related to forest investments in Brazil. The thesis is divided into two chapters. The first chapter investigates the strategies used by TIMOs in Brazil and their declared expectations on returns. The second chapter offers a comprehensive analysis of the level and variability of the return rate for three different regions in Brazil. / As plantações florestais fornecem serviços vitais para os seres humanos. Devido ao crescimento populacional e econômico, a demanda por produtos oriundos de florestas plantadas cresceu rapidamente nos últimos anos.Entre os países que possuem uma forte base florestal, Brasil ocupa um papel essencial como produtor de florestas plantadas. A disponibilidade de terra e a alta produtividade atraíram diversos tipos de investidores para o país. As Timberland Investment Management Organization (TIMOs) estão entre os tipos de investidores ampliou seus investmentos no mercado florestal brasileiro. Em paralelo, o setor florestal brasileiro tem expandido para novas áreas devido ao menor custo da terra e incentivos governamentais. Essa dissertação tem como principal objetivo investigar as estratégias e espectativas dos investidores estrangeiros e os principais aspectos relacionados a projetos florestais no Brasil. A dissertação está dividida em dois capítulo. O primeiro capítulo investiga as principais estratégias e os retornos esperados das TIMOs em investimentos florestais no país. O segundo capítulo analiza os níveis de atratividade e seus retornos em três diferentes regiões do país.

Forest plantations provide essential services for human beings. More recently, population and economic growth has increasingly intensified the demand for forest products. Forest activities are expanding to new areas due to low land prices and governmental incentives in Brazil. Among others; Timberland Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) are the type of invertors that have significantly increased their participation in the timberland market. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate investor\'s strategies and the mains aspects related to forest investments in Brazil. The thesis is divided into two chapters. The first chapter investigates the strategies used by TIMOs in Brazil and their declared expectations on returns. The second chapter offers a comprehensive analysis of the level and variability of the return rate for three different regions in Brazil. / As plantações florestais fornecem serviços vitais para os seres humanos. Devido ao crescimento populacional e econômico, a demanda por produtos oriundos de florestas plantadas cresceu rapidamente nos últimos anos.Entre os países que possuem uma forte base florestal, Brasil ocupa um papel essencial como produtor de florestas plantadas. A disponibilidade de terra e a alta produtividade atraíram diversos tipos de investidores para o país. As Timberland Investment Management Organization (TIMOs) estão entre os tipos de investidores ampliou seus investmentos no mercado florestal brasileiro. Em paralelo, o setor florestal brasileiro tem expandido para novas áreas devido ao menor custo da terra e incentivos governamentais. Essa dissertação tem como principal objetivo investigar as estratégias e espectativas dos investidores estrangeiros e os principais aspectos relacionados a projetos florestais no Brasil. A dissertação está dividida em dois capítulo. O primeiro capítulo investiga as principais estratégias e os retornos esperados das TIMOs em investimentos florestais no país. O segundo capítulo analiza os níveis de atratividade e seus retornos em três diferentes regiões do país.