Capital Gains Determination
Based on your responses you sold standing timber (stumpage), that was not "held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business".
The timber is considered to be a capital asset and as such qualifies for capital gains treatment. To determine if the sale qualifies for long- or short-term treatment you must determine the holding period of the timber that was sold.
The holding period starts the day after the timber was acquired and runs through the day the timber was sold, include the day of the sale. For example, if you acquired the timber on 15th of the month your holding period starts on the 16th of that month. The same date of each following month (the 16th in this example) is considered to be a full month.
Once the holding period has been calculated you can determine if the sale qualifies as long- or short-term capital gains. For a more in depth discussion about the sale of standing timber click here.