Sec.14-49-6. Requirements for farm registration. Revocation of registration

(a) Beginning on the effective date of this regulation and until January 1, 1999, every applicant for a new or renewal farm registration for a motor vehicle shall comply with the following requirements:

(1) The applicant shall submit a signed application on a form or in a format prescribed by the commissioner;

(2) The applicant shall pay the fee required by law;

(3) The applicant shall submit proof to the commissioner that he is operating a farm, and that the farm had gross annual sales of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) or more in the calendar year preceding such application for registration. Such proof shall consist of one of the following:

(A) A copy of a current Farmer's Sales Tax Exempt Permit issued by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (Form OR-248). A current Permit is one that has been issued no earlier than the first day of October of the year preceding the application for registration; or,

(B) A copy of the prior year's Federal Income Tax Form 1040F in the name of the applicant; or,

(C) Documents acceptable to the commissioner proving that the applicant is operating a farm having the gross annual sales required to qualify for farm registration. The commissioner may require that the documents be certified, or be reviewed and verified by a certified public accountant.

(4) The applicant shall be the same person, firm or corporation identified on the Sales Tax Exempt Permit or other documents submitted in accordance with subdivision (3), except that if the motor vehicle is leased, a farm registration may be issued to the owner thereof if the person operating the farm and identified on the documents is listed on the registration as the lessee. A farm registration may be issued to joint applicants who are individual persons, provided that one of the applicants is the person operating the farm as identified on the documents.

(5) The applicant shall sign, under penalty of false statement, a certification that the vehicle will be used exclusively for farming purposes as defined in subsection (c), and shall not be used for the purpose of transporting goods for hire, or for taking the on-the-road skills test portion of an examination for a motor vehicle operator's license.

(b) On and after January 1, 1999, an applicant for a renewal farm registration shall not be required to submit a copy of the documents as required by subdivision (3) of subsection (a), provided that he submits to the commissioner a current Sales Tax Exemption Permit number.

(c) A motor vehicle is used for farming purposes when it is used in connection with the raising and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodity, dairy farming, forestry, the raising of livestock and poultry, or the raising and harvesting of fish, oysters, clams, mussels or other molluscan shellfish. Farming purposes shall not include, inter alia, personal use, non-farm business, pleasure, recreation, or commuting to school or to non-farm employment. A motor vehicle is also used for farming purposes when it is delivering agricultural and horticultural commodities, or other farm products, from the farm to market or to a customer.

(d) Upon receipt of reliable evidence that a person to whom the commissioner has issued a farm registration has not used the motor vehicle exclusively for farming purposes, or has otherwise misused the farm registration, the commissioner may summon the registrant to a hearing conducted in accordance with chapter 54 of the general statutes, and may revoke such farm registration upon a finding of use otherwise than provided by law.

(Adopted effective October 3, 1997)