2013 Vermont Statutes
Title 09 Commerce and Trade
Chapter 60 AGRICULTURAL FINANCE LEASES
§ 2381 Definitions

2381. Definitions

As used in this chapter:

(1) "Agricultural finance lease" or "lease" means a lease of property to a farmer under which:

(A) the lease transfers ownership of the leased property to the lessee by the end of the lease term;

(B) the lease contains an option for the lessee to purchase the leased property at the end of the lease term;

(C) the lease term is equal to or greater than 75 percent of the estimated economic life of the leased property; or

(D) when the lease is executed, the present value of the rental and other minimum lease payments equals or exceeds 90 percent of the fair market value of the leased property less any investment tax credit retained by the lessor.

(2) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Financial Regulation.

(3) "Fair market value" means the price the leased property would be sold for in a transaction between willing and informed parties in an arms-length transaction.

(4) "Farmer" means any person engaged in farming.

(5) "Farming" means those activities described in 10 V.S.A. 6001(22).

(6) "Leased property" or "property" means personal property leased by a lessor to a farmer lessee for use in farming, including goods, livestock, equipment and machinery, bulk milk tanks, silos, manure storage systems, tools, fixtures that were personal property at the time the lease was entered into, and accessories. The term also includes the cost of installation, if any.

(7) "Lessee" means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of leased property under an agricultural finance lease.

(8) "Lessor" means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of leased property under an agricultural finance lease, and agents, successors, and assigns of the lessor. The term also includes a person who is the manufacturer, seller, supplier, or dealer of the leased property if the lessor is wholly owned as a subsidiary corporation by, or wholly owns as a subsidiary corporation, such a person, or if there is common ownership or management in any other form between the lessor and that person. (Added 1989, No. 284 (Adj. Sess.), 1; amended 1995, No. 180 (Adj. Sess.), 38; 2011, No. 78 (Adj. Sess.), 2, eff. April 2, 2012; 2011, No. 136 (Adj. Sess.), 1.)