While updating the West Virginia Commercial Business Property Return for PTR by Advantax, one of our technology experts brought to my attention that there is a “Number of Sheep and Goats of Breeding Age” section on the return.  Logically it’s placed between “Vehicles” and “Incomplete Construction”.  The instructions ask the preparer to fill in the number of each and then remit $1 for each head with the completed form.  This got me thinking…..  How many sheep and goats live in West Virginia?  How do you know when sheep and goats are of breeding age?   Who audits that kind of thing?

According to a 2001 study, the breeding ewe and lamb population in WV was about 28,000.  Now since a lamb is a newborn we have to assume that it is not “of breeding age”.  Actually, I’m not really sure when the lamb becomes a breeding ewe – and I’m not one to pass judgment on the sheep anyway.  Suffice to say, if all the sheep in the study were, let’s say “active”, the maximum collectable property tax would be $28,000 (at $1 per).   That hardly pays for an auditor to drive around the state to visit all the sheep farmers.

In researching this further, it appears that tax on sheep is not a new thing.  In 1549, England imposed a tax on sheep with different rates for different breeds.  It was the shortest-lived tax in English history (apparently even more unpopular than the Hearth Tax).  This makes me wonder why in 2010 West Virginia is still hanging on.  Are they not familiar with the 1549 failed tax?

Perhaps they should take the more aggressive approach like New Zealand tried in 2003 when the government proposed a tax on the flatulence emitted by sheep, cattle and deer.  They determined that half of the greenhouse gas emissions in their country were the result of livestock flatulence.  If West Virginia could get $1 for every time those 28,000 sheep passed wind, you might be talking real money.