Congress just renewed a tax incentive for private landowners—especially working family farmers and forest landowners—who protect their land with a voluntary conservation agreement. The incentive, which had expired at the end of 2009, helped Georgia Land Trust and Alabama Land Trust work with willing landowners to conserve a total of more than 160,000 acres of productive agricultural and forest lands and natural areas in both states.
Conservation-minded landowners now have until December 31, 2011 to take advantage of a significant tax deduction for donating a voluntary conservation agreement to permanently protect important natural or historic resources on their land. When landowners donate a conservation easement to Georgia Land Trust or Alabama Land Trust, they maintain ownership and management of their land and can sell or pass the land on to their heirs, while foregoing future development rights.
The enhanced incentive applies to a landowner’s federal income tax. It:
- Raises the deduction a donor can take for donating a voluntary conservation agreement from 30% of their income in any year to 50%;
- Allows farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their income; and
- Increases the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from 6 to 16 years.
“Our whole community wins when thoughtful landowners conserve their land this way, protecting wildlife habitat, clean drinking water, scenic landscapes, recreational spaces, and productive agricultural lands,” said Katherine Eddins, executive director of Georgia Land Trust and Alabama Land Trust. “Conservation agreements have become an important tool nationally for protecting our watersheds, farms and forests, increasing the pace of private land conservation by a third – to over a million acres a year
According to the Land Trust Alliance, the national organization that provides a voice for land trusts in Washington, DC, bills to make this incentive permanent have 274 House and 41 Senate co-sponsors from all 50 states, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans in the House. This legislation is supported by more than 60 national agricultural, sportsmen’s, and conservation organizations.
To learn more about the enhanced incentive visit: www.galandtrust.org or www.lta.org/easementincentive.
