Certification of Individual's Landholdings

FORM 7-2180
2008 Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CERTIFICATION OF
INDIVIDUAL’S LANDHOLDINGS
(Discretionary Provisions)

(7-07)

Bureau of Reclamation
Do not use this form after December 31, 2008

OMB Control No.: 1006-0005

Paperwork Reduction Act
This information is being collected to establish landholder compliance with Federal reclamation law. Response to this request is mandatory in
accordance with Public Law 97-293 and 43 CFR 426.18. Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 1 hour per response,
including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. An agency may not
conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) control number. Direct comments regarding the burden estimated or any other aspect of these forms to
Manager, Land Resources Office, Code 84-53000, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, PO Box 25007, Denver CO 80225.

Fact Sheets 1, 2, and 5 and the instructions to
Form 7-2180EZ are available at your district office if you are
unsure whether Form 7-2180 is the appropriate form for you
to submit.

GENERAL INFORMATION
“General Information About RRA Forms” (Form 7-21INFO)
provides basic instructions on using Reclamation Reform
Act of 1982 (RRA) forms. Ask your district office for this
form each year to keep current. Refer to the definitions at
the end of Form 7-21INFO whenever the meaning of a term
is not clear to you. Please note, some terms such as
“irrigable land,” “irrigation land,” and “irrigation water”
have special definitions when used in these forms which
differ from their common meaning. Other terms and
corresponding definitions that are specific to the RRA forms
are:

WHERE TO SUBMIT FORMS
You must submit a certification form to each district in
which you hold (directly or indirectly own or lease) land.
You must submit the original form to one district office and
may submit copies to the others if you hold land in more
than one district.

• “Land” or “acres” means irrigable and/or irrigation land.

WHAT LAND TO INCLUDE

•

“You” or “your” means the landholder.

•

“We,” “us,” “our,” or “Reclamation” means the Bureau
of Reclamation

You must certify all of your land held westwide that is
subject to the acreage limitation provisions. Please see
Form 7-21INFO if you have excess land or full-cost land to
identify. You must provide an accurate legal description or
an assessor’s parcel number for each land parcel. Be sure to
break down land parcels as far as necessary to ensure
accurate identification.

Visit www.usbr.gov/rra for more information.

WHO MUST SUBMIT THIS FORM
IF LANDHOLDINGS CHANGE
You must certify your landholding on a “Certification of
Individual’s Landholdings” (Form 7-2180) if you are an
individual, an individual with dependent children, a married
couple, or a married couple with dependent children, and
you are a qualified recipient whose total westwide
landholdings are more than the RRA forms submittal
threshold of your district(s). A category 1 district's form
submittal threshold is 240 acres and a category 2 district's
threshold is 80 acres for qualified recipients. Please contact
each district in which you hold land to find out each district's
forms submittal category since a district's RRA forms
submittal category is subject to change annually.

You must notify all districts in which you hold land within
30 calendar days if your westwide landholdings change
during the water year, and you must submit new certification
forms within 60 calendar days of the change. These 30- and
60-day grace periods do not apply to a new landholder. A
new landholder must submit certification forms prior to
receiving Reclamation irrigation water.
For more information on landholding changes see
Fact Sheet 11, which is available at your district office.

ANNUAL CERTIFICATION

You may be eligible to submit an “EZ Certification of
Individual’s Landholdings” (Form 7-2180EZ) instead of
Form 7-2180 if you meet certain conditions. See the
instructions to Form 7-2180EZ for a list of those conditions.

You must submit a standard certification form each and
every year prior to the delivery of Reclamation irrigation
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water to your land if your westwide landholdings exceed the
applicable RRA forms submittal threshold, with the
following exceptions:

ITEM BY ITEM INSTRUCTIONS
Landholder Information

(1) You may submit a “Verification of Landholdings”
(Form 7-21VERIFY) instead of Form 7-2180 if
your westwide landholdings have not changed since
the last standard certification form you submitted;

1.

Enter your name.

2.

Enter your marital status (single, married, divorced, or
widowed).

(2) You may submit a Form 7-21VERIFY together with a
new “Selection of Full-Cost Land” (Form 7-21FC)
if your westwide landholdings have not changed
since the last standard certification form you
submitted, and you want to reselect your full-cost
land; or

3.

Enter your spouse's name, if married.

4.

(a)

Enter your residential address. You must use
the street address or rural route number, city,
state, and ZIP code. Your attorney's address,
relative's address, “c/o” address, etc., is not
acceptable in place of a residential address.
Post office box numbers may be used only if no
other address exists.

(b)

Enter your mailing address if it is different from
your residential address.

(a)

Enter the telephone number where questions can
be directed.

(b)

Enter the name of a contact person at that
telephone number, if you are not the person to
whom we should direct our questions.

(3) You do not need to submit any RRA forms if you only
hold land indirectly through entities, trusts, or
estates and neither the acres attributed to you nor
the percentage of the entity, trust, or estate
attributed to you has changed since you previously
submitted a Form 7-2180, and all other information
on your previously submitted Form 7-2180 has not
changed.

5.

IRREVOCABLE ELECTION
Please be aware, by submitting this form, a prior law
recipient that only holds land indirectly in a district that has
conformed to the discretionary provisions will be making an
irrevocable election to conform to the discretionary
provisions. That action will be binding in that and all other
districts in which the landholder holds land subject to the
acreage limitation provisions.
Such actions do not apply if you and your spouse, if married,
are nonresident aliens. See Form 7-21INFO for more
information on how an irrevocable election impacts your
westwide acreage limitation status and what actions need to
be taken by nonresident aliens in order to conform to the
discretionary provisions.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
Type or print in ink all answers. You must initial and date
any crossouts and corrections. You may attach continuation
sheets to list information. Preprinted continuation sheets are
available for this purpose, or you may make your own.
District name abbreviation(s) used on this form must be
spelled out on the form where the abbreviation is used for
the first time, or on a separate sheet attached to this form.
Please contact your district office or the appropriate
Reclamation office if you have any questions.

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6.

If you, your spouse if you are married, or your
dependents hold land in the name of an entity that is
entirely owned by you, your spouse, and/or your
dependents, enter that name. Note: Nondependent
minor children who hold land that exceeds the forms
submittal threshold must submit their own RRA
form(s). An entity that is subject to the discretionary
provisions, excluding a trust or estate, that is wholly
owned by an individual (which by definition includes
a married couple under the discretionary provisions)
must not submit its own RRA form. Do not list trusts
and estates of which you are a beneficiary. Instead,
list such trusts and estates in item 15.
Enter the following information if you own
100-percent interest in an entity that directly owns
or leases land:
(a)

Entity’s name.

(b)

Entity’s Employer Identification Number (EIN)
[please see item 15(c) for more information on
EIN’s],
State or country where the entity is established,
and

(c)

(d)

The legal description(s) or an assessor’s parcel
number(s) for land that is directly owned or
leased by the entity.

(e)

Number of acres if held by a 100-percent owned
entity.
FORM 7-2180 (2008)

10.
(f)

Entity’s acreage limitation status: subject to
prior law or subject to discretionary provisions.

For purposes of determining total landholdings, if you
hold 100-percent interest in an entity that directly
owns or leases land, all land listed here must be listed
again in items 10 and 11 for the entity's directly
owned land, or items 13 and 14 for the entity's
directly leased land.
List any other name in which you or your spouse
directly hold land (such as a maiden name,
dependent’s name, etc.).
Note: All trusts and estates must complete a
“Declaration of Trust’s or Estate’s Landholdings”
(Form 7-21TRUST).
7.

8.

Check the box(es) to indicate if you or your spouse, if
married, are U.S. citizens, resident aliens, or
nonresident aliens. Please indicate your country of
citizenship if you check “nonresident alien.”
Nonresident aliens will be required to submit proof of
citizenship when they irrevocably elect to conform to
the discretionary provisions. Please note, land held
directly by nonresident aliens who are qualified
recipients is not eligible to receive Reclamation
irrigation water.
Indicate your dependency status under the Internal
Revenue Code. Your westwide landholdings must be
included on your parents' or legal guardians’
Form 7-2180 if your answer is “yes.” Parents or legal
guardians must submit a Form 7-2180 and count the
land held in the name(s) of their dependent(s) against
the parents’ or legal guardians’ acreage limitation
entitlements, even if they hold no land in their own
names.

This section requests information regarding land that
you directly own westwide. Also include any land
owned by an entity in which you own 100-percent
interest. Include land leased from a public entity here
instead of including it as leased land in item 13
because it counts against the lessee's ownership
entitlement (pursuant to Public Law 91-310). In that
situation, write the land is leased from a public entity
and include the name of that public entity after the
legal description of the land parcel. Enter the
following for each land parcel:
(a)

Name of district in which the land parcel is
located. Group land parcels by district to make
it easier to complete items 20 through 26.

(b)

Provide an accurate legal description of the land
parcel or an assessor’s parcel number. For each
lessee, sublessee, or operator entered in
item 10(d) [or for yourself if you check “self” in
item 10(c)], there is space to list four land
parcels (one parcel per line) if all parcels are
operated by the same natural person or entity in
the same district. You may list more than one
parcel per line if all parcels have the same lease
information.

(c)

Who primarily operates the land parcel: you
(self); a lessee or sublessee under a lease
(lessee/sublessee); or an operator under any
other type of farm operating arrangement
(other).

(d)

Name, address, and telephone number of each
lessee, sublessee, or other type of operator.
Skip this column and go to item 10(g) if you are
the primary operator of the land parcel.

(e)

Starting date of the lease. This is the date the
lease first became effective. Enter the date the
lease was signed if no effective date was
specified in the lease. Remember, leases cannot
exceed 10 years except with our approval for
perennial crops, which are determined on a
crop-by-crop basis but cannot exceed 25 years.

(f)

Ending date of the lease. This is the date on
which the current lease will terminate, including
all exercisable options.

(g)

Number of acres in the land parcel. If you lease
land from a public entity and then sublease it to
another landholder, do not list those acres in this
column because they are attributed to the
sublessee.

Land You Directly Own
It is the responsibility of landowners, sellers of land, and
districts to notify lessees, buyers of land, and new
landholders, respectively, of the RRA forms submittal
requirements associated with the land in question.
9.

Enter your name again. (These forms are often
photocopied, so it is necessary to have your name
identified on each page.)

11. Total column 10(g). This is the number of acres
you directly own westwide. Include in this total
any directly owned acres listed on continuation
sheets or attachments.
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FORM 7-2180 (2008)

or part of your directly leased land is also attributed to
your indirectly owned land.

Land You Directly Lease From Another Party
Landholders that lease land to or from other landholders
should inform the lessees and lessors of their obligation to
also submit RRA forms. If either the lessee or lessor fails to
submit RRA forms, the eligibility of the land to receive
Reclamation irrigation water will be jeopardized.
12.

Enter your name.

13.

This section requests information regarding land that
you directly lease westwide from another party. Also
include any land directly leased by an entity in which
you own 100-percent interest. Do not include land
you lease from a public entity here; instead, include it
in item 10. Include information regarding any land
you sublease to others here. Enter the following for
each land parcel:
(a)

Name of district in which the land parcel is
located. Group land parcels by district to make
it easier to complete items 20 through 26.

(b)

Provide an accurate legal description of the land
parcel or an assessor’s parcel number.

(c)

Who primarily operates the land: you (self) or
another party (other).

(d)

Natural person or entity that directly owns the
land that you lease. Enter the sublessee’s name
as well as the landowner's name if you sublease
the land to another landholder. If you sublease
the land from another landholder, enter the
sublessor’s name and the landowner’s name.
Include the farm operator’s name if the land is
operated by a farm operator.

(e)

(f)

(g)

14.

Starting date of the lease. This is the date the
lease first became effective. Enter the date the
lease was signed if no effective date was
specified in the lease. Remember, leases cannot
exceed 10 years except with our approval for
perennial crops, which are determined on a
crop-by-crop basis but cannot exceed 25 years.
Ending date of the lease. This is the date on
which the current lease will terminate, including
all exercisable options.
Number of acres in the land parcel. Do not list
acres that you sublease to others in this column
because they are attributed to the sublessee.

Total column 13(g). This is the total number of acres
you directly lease (and sublease) westwide. Include in
this total any directly leased (and subleased) acres
listed on continuation sheets or attachments. Please
contact your district office for further instructions if all

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Land You Indirectly Own or Lease Through Other
Entities
15.

This section requests information regarding land that
you indirectly own or lease westwide through entities,
trusts, or estates. Do not include land directly held by
any entity in which you own 100-percent interest.
Instead, include that land in item 10 or item 13 as
appropriate. Include land indirectly held by any
entity in which you own 100-percent interest. Obtain
a completed copy of any entity’s “Certification of
Entity’s Landholdings” (Form 7-2181) or “Report of
Entity’s Landholdings” (Form 7-2191), or any trust’s
or estate’s Form 7-21TRUST that attributes land to
you. By referring to the information contained on the
entity's, trust's, or estate's form, you can help ensure
the information you certify on your form is accurate.
Enter the following for each land parcel in each
district in which the entity, trust, or estate holds land
attributed to you:
(a)

Name of district in which the land parcel is
located. Group land parcels by district to make
it easier to complete items 20 through 26.

(b)

Name of the entity, trust, or estate that holds
land in which you own an interest or are a
beneficiary.

(c)

The entity's, trust's, or estate's EIN. Leave this
blank if the entity, trust, or estate does not have
an EIN, and is not required by the Internal
Revenue Service to have an EIN.

(d)

Percentage of interest you own in each entity or
the percentage of land held in a trust or estate
attributed to you.

(e)

Total number of acres owned (directly and
indirectly) by the entity, trust, or estate.

(f)

Multiply item 15(d) (in decimal form) by item
15(e). This is the number of acres that you
indirectly own through the entity, trust, or
estate.

(g)

Total number of acres leased (directly and
indirectly) by the entity, trust, or estate.

(h)

This item applies if you directly own land and
lease that same land to an entity, trust, or estate
in which you own an interest. Leave both
sections of item 15(h) blank if you do not have
this situation. By completing this item you will
prevent counting the same land twice against
your entitlement, once as directly owned land

FORM 7-2180 (2008)

(i)

16.

17.

and again as indirectly leased land if this
situation applies to you.

Excess Land” (Form 7-21XS) if this number is more
than your ownership entitlement.

(1)

Enter the number of acres from item 15(g)
that you directly own and lease to the
entity, trust, or estate.

(2)

Subtract item 15(h)(1) from item 15(g).
This is the number of adjusted acres that
the entity, trust, or estate leases to use in
calculating the number of leased acres
attributed to you.

We will determine all land held by you to be
ineligible to receive Reclamation irrigation water if
you exceed your westwide ownership entitlement and
you do not submit Form 7-21XS to designate your
excess acres. Your land will be ineligible to receive
such water until the appropriate excess designation is
made. Regardless of whether your owned land
exceeds your ownership entitlement, you must
complete a Form 7-21XS and designate land as excess
on that form if you:

Multiply item 15(d) (in decimal form) by item
15(h)(2) if you completed item 15(h). Multiply
item 15(d) (in decimal form) by item 15(g) if
you did not complete item 15(h). This is the
number of leased acres attributed to you through
the entity, trust, or estate.

Total column 15(f). This is the total number of acres
you indirectly own westwide. Include in this total any
indirectly owned acres listed on continuation sheets or
attachments.

• Purchase land that was designated as excess by
the seller without our sales price approval;
• Involuntarily acquire excess land; or
• Involuntarily acquire eligible land and
designate it as excess.
23.

For each district, enter the total number of acres you
directly lease in the district. Obtain this information
from item 13(g). Add the number of acres in item 23
and enter that number in the “TOTAL” column (far
right column). This is the number of acres you
directly lease westwide and should equal item 14.

24.

For each district, enter the total number of acres you
indirectly lease in the district. Obtain this information
from item 15(i). Add the number of acres in item 24
and enter that number in the “TOTAL” column (far
right column). This is the number of acres you
indirectly lease westwide and should equal item 17.

25.

For each district, add item 23 and item 24. This is the
total number of acres you lease in each district. Add
the number of acres in item 25 and enter that number
in the “TOTAL” column (far right column). This is
the number of acres you lease westwide.

26.

For each district, add item 22 and item 25. This is the
total number of acres you hold in each district. Add
the number of acres in item 26 and enter that number
in the “TOTAL” column (far right column). This is
the number of acres you hold westwide and counts
against your nonfull-cost entitlement. You must
submit a Form 7-21FC if this number is more than
your nonfull-cost entitlement and you directly or
indirectly lease land.

Total column 15(i). This is the total number of acres
you indirectly lease westwide. Include in this total
any indirectly leased acres listed on continuation
sheets or attachments.

Landholdings Summary
18.

Enter your name.

19.

Enter the name of each district westwide in which you
hold land. Circle the district at which the original
form is filed if you are a multidistrict landholder.

20.

For each district, enter the total number of acres you
directly own in the district. Obtain this information
from item 10(g). Add the number of acres in item 20
and enter that number in the “TOTAL” column (far
right column). This is the number of acres you
directly own westwide and should equal item 11.

21.

For each district, enter the total number of acres you
indirectly own in the district. Obtain this information
from item 15(f). Add the number of acres in item 21
and enter that number in the “TOTAL” column (far
right column). This is the number of acres you
indirectly own westwide and should equal item 16.

22.

For each district, add item 20 and item 21. This is the
total number of acres you own in each district. Add
the number of acres in item 22 and enter that total in
the far right column. This is the number of acres you
own westwide and counts against your ownership
entitlement. You must submit a “Designation of

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Basis for Eligibility for Discretionary Provision
Entitlements
27. Check the box next to the one statement that best
describes how you became subject to the discretionary
provisions. Provide the requested information for that

FORM 7-2180 (2008)

statement. Please contact your district office if you do
not know which statement applies to you.
Signatures
28.

Read the attestation statements carefully and sign and
date the form in ink. The statements concerning the
reporting of changes in information, the rent paid on
irrigation land, written leases, the terms of such leases,
and holdings of your spouse, if married, and
dependents are requirements of Federal reclamation
law. Both you and your spouse, if married, must sign
the form. This requirement applies even if the land is
not jointly held. However, you may use a written
signature authorization to permit one spouse to sign
for the couple and a copy must be submitted to each
district you submit RRA forms. The district office
must keep any such spousal signature authorizations
on file.

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FORM 7-2180 (2008)