Texas land is an asset, a livelihood, and often a legacy—and it comes with a tax playbook all its own. At Orsak Langner & Barthel PLLC, we help ranchers, farmers, and landowners across Houston and Texas protect agricultural valuations, report mineral and royalty income, and pass land to the next generation without an avoidable tax bill.

Whether you run cattle, lease for hunting, hold acreage for the family, or sit on producing minerals, the decisions you make today shape your tax bill for years. Agricultural valuations can be lost in a single misstep. Land sales can trigger far more tax than necessary. We help you avoid both.

We help owners:

• Maintain agricultural (1-d-1) and wildlife-management valuations and avoid triggering rollback taxes
• Report Schedule F farm income, livestock sales, and government program payments correctly
• Handle mineral and royalty income that often comes with Texas land
• Use like-kind (1031) exchanges to defer tax when selling or repositioning land
• Plan multi-generational transfers that keep land in the family and minimize estate and gift tax

• Ag & wildlife valuation — keeping your special-use valuation intact and understanding rollback exposure if use changes
• Farm & ranch income — Schedule F, depreciation of equipment and improvements, and income averaging where it helps
• Mineral & royalty income — depletion and interest-type reporting for land that also produces (see our Oil & Gas Royalty Owner Tax services)
• Conservation easements — tax treatment of qualified conservation contributions
• Land 1031 exchanges — deferring gain when you sell or trade land
• Succession & transfer planning — gifting strategies, entities, and basis planning for the next generation

• Ranchers and farmers managing working agricultural operations
• Landowners holding recreational, hunting, or investment acreage
• Families preparing to pass land—and the minerals beneath it—to heirs
• Owners selling or repositioning land who want to defer or reduce tax

At Orsak CPAs, we understand that for most Texas families, land is the longest-held and most meaningful asset they own. We help you keep more of it, and keep it in the family.

Texas agricultural (1-d-1) and wildlife-management valuations can dramatically reduce the property-tax basis on qualifying land. But the benefit comes with strings: change the use of the land, sell to a non-qualifying buyer, or stop meeting the use requirements, and you can trigger a rollback tax that recaptures years of savings plus interest.

We help owners understand what keeps a valuation in place, what puts it at risk, and how to plan around a sale or change in use so the rollback doesn't catch you by surprise.

A single property can generate several kinds of taxable income, each with its own rules:

• Farm and ranch operations — reported on Schedule F, with depreciation for equipment, fencing, and improvements, plus special rules for livestock and crop sales
• Lease income — grazing, hunting, and surface-use leases
• Mineral and royalty income — often the largest and most misreported piece, with depletion deductions many owners miss
• Government program payments — which have specific reporting requirements

We make sure each stream lands on the right schedule and that you capture the deductions that go with it.

• Valuation strategy — protecting ag and wildlife valuations and modeling rollback exposure before a sale or use change
• Schedule F preparation — farm income, depreciation, and income-averaging analysis
• Mineral & royalty reporting — coordinated with our oil & gas royalty expertise
• 1031 exchange planning — deferring gain on land sales and repositioning
• Conservation easement support — documentation and tax treatment of qualified contributions
• Succession planning — entities, gifting, and basis planning to transfer land tax-efficiently

Land tax sits at the intersection of agriculture, energy, real estate, and estate planning—and few firms work across all four. Our Houston-based team does. We understand Texas-specific rules, the realities of a working operation, and what it takes to keep land productive and in the family across generations.

With Orsak Langner & Barthel PLLC, you get:

• Ag and wildlife valuations protected and rollback risk managed
• Every income stream from your land reported correctly
• Sales and transfers structured to defer or reduce tax
• One firm coordinating land, minerals, and estate strategy together

To plan how your land passes to the next generation, explore our Estate & Trusts and Succession Planning & Wealth Transfer services.