Sudbury, MA – Congress just renewed a tax incentive for private landowners who protect their land with a voluntary conservation agreement. The incentive, which had expired at the end of 2009, helped Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT) work with willing landowners in our region conserve two very important pieces of open space in Framingham in 2008.
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 restriction to SVT, they maintain ownership and management of their land and can sell or pass the land on to their heirs, while foregoing future development rights.
While there are already certain benefits to a landowner’s federal income tax for the donation of conservation interests, this enhanced incentive:
- 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 Ron McAdow, Executive Director. “Conservation restrictions have become an important tool for protecting our watersheds, farms and forests, increasing the pace of private land conservation by a third – to over a million acres a year nationally. SVT joins America’s 1,700 land trusts and their two million supporters in thanking our Senators and Representatives for making this important conservation tool available.”
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 was supported by more than 60 national agricultural, sportsmen’s, and conservation organizations.
To learn more about the enhanced incentive visit: www.lta.org/easementincentive.
