Through donations of conservation easements or outrightdonations of land in exchange for tax deductions, private landownersvoluntarily have made widespread use of the most effective tool yet discovered for hedging unwise development that is rapidly devouring fish and wildlife habitat in America. Sportsmen and the groups that represent them are keenly aware of the dramatic impact conservation tax incentives such as easements have had on conserving land and watermost needed by fish and game.
In August 2006, Congress approved and President Bush signed a much-needed expansion of the federal conservation tax incentive for conservation easement donations. This expansion makes tax benefits available to more family farmers, ranchers, and other moderate-income landowners who want to make charitable donations of conservation easements.
The new law:
- Raises the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation easement from 30% of their income in any year to 50%;
- Allows qualifying farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their income; and
- Extends the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions for a voluntary conservation agreement from 5 to 15 years.
*This new expansion only applies to easements donated in 2006 and 2007. Work is already under way to make the expansion permanent and it will be extremely important for sportsmen to let their elected leaders know how vital conservation tax incentives including easements are to the future of hunting and fishing in America.
Many of the nation's 40 million sportsmen are intimately familiar with the benefits of conservation tax incentives including easements and the way the groups they belong to have used them to benefit fishand game species. Hunting- and fishing-oriented conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, and Trout Unlimited have used a host of conservation taxincentives, including easements, to implement arrangements with landowners that benefit not only ducks, pheasants, elk, and trout, but a wide variety of other species.
The TRCP, through its Conservation Tax Incentives Working Group led by the Land Trust Alliance and including the Association of Fishand Wildlife Agencies, the Izaak Walton League of America, DucksUnlimited, the North American Grouse Partnership and The Nature Conservancy, will focus on further engaging hunters and anglers in the effort to highlight successful easement programs that have benefited sportsmen across the country so that policymakers know how important it is to sportsmen that the temporary conservation tax incentive expansion enacted in 2006 is made permanent.