With 2012 winding down and thousands of farmers yet to apply for a sales tax exemption on their inputs, the state Department of Agriculture is urging growers to take a few minutes to get approved as an official producer.

The new Georgia Agricultural Tax Exemption (GATE) card could save farmers, ranchers and other agriculture producers on the sales tax that they pay for seed, fertilizer and even fuel for their tractors.

But the new system requires farmers to apply to the state for a once-a-year permit and only a fraction have filed the paperwork to have an exemption in 2013. Those who don’t apply for GATE will be forced to pay sales tax on all their inputs until they get a card.

The process to sign up for a card is simple and the vast majority of farmers have opted to fill out the form online at www.agr.georgia.gov. A team of a dozen agents are working to answer questions at a Department of Agriculture call center, and the department is turning around paper applications within a day or two.

But fewer than one-quarter of the 40,000 to 65,000 farmers in Georgia have filled out the paperwork.  Come Jan. 1, companies that sell inputs and other agriculture products will have to charge sales tax to anyone without a GATE card, so most are trying to spread the word to their customers.