This is explaining how Virginia’s land use taxation program works when land stops qualifying for the reduced “land use” assessment.

• Land in the Land Use Program is taxed at a lower value because it is being used for agriculture, forestry, horticulture, or open space.
• The tax savings are considered a deferment, not a permanent exemption.
• If the land use changes to something non-qualifying (like building houses or subdividing lots), the locality can collect the taxes that were “saved” in prior years. That is called a rollback tax.

Here’s what the paragraph means section by section:

Rollback period

If qualifying land changes to non-qualifying use:

• The county can charge rollback taxes for:
• the current tax year, plus
• up to the previous 5 years
• So the maximum rollback covers 6 years total.

If the property has been in the program less than 5 years, they only go back to when it entered the program.

Selling less than 5 acres

If a qualifying parcel loses acreage and the remaining tract or sold tract no longer qualifies:

• Rollback taxes apply to the acres that no longer qualify.

Example:

• You own 20 qualifying acres.
• You sell 3 acres.
• Those 3 acres may no longer qualify under land use.
• Rollback taxes would be assessed on those 3 acres.

Building a house

If a home is built on qualifying land:

• Usually 1 acre around the homesite is removed from land use.
• Rollback taxes are charged on that 1-acre homesite.

The rest of the land may still qualify if it meets acreage and use requirements.

Who pays the rollback tax?

The key rule is:

The person who changes the use from qualifying to non-qualifying pays the rollback tax.

Examples:

Example 1

• You sell 5 acres of qualifying land.
• Buyer later builds a house.
• Buyer changed the use.
• Buyer gets the rollback tax.

Example 2

• You remove land from farming before selling.
• You changed the use.
• You get the rollback tax.

So ownership alone does not trigger rollback taxes — the triggering event is the change in use.