Tax Benefits of Donating Conservation & Agricultural Easements
Tax Benefits
Conservation and agricultural easements are voluntary legal agreements between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limit a property’s uses in order to preserve its “conservation values”.
These easements can be characterized as the “rights to develop and/or subdivide land” and are usually designed to preserve specific conservation values (such as open space, habitat, recreation, agriculture, etc.). An “agricultural easement” is very similar to a “conservation easement” except that an agricultural easement includes as part of its main purpose the conservation of agricultural land.
Placer Land Trust has 17 years experience holding and monitoring easements; PLT currently holds over a dozen conservation easements and agricultural easements.
Conservation and agricultural easements keep land in private ownership. When you own land, you also own many rights associated with it, such as the rights to farm, graze, harvest timber, build structures, etc. When you donate or sell a conservation easement to a land trust, you voluntarily give up some of those rights. For example, you might give up the right to build additional residences or excavate for minerals, while retaining the right to grow crops. These easements are flexible documents, and are designed to meet the specific needs and desires of both the landowner and the land trust. In some cases, a conservation easement may apply to just a portion of the property, leaving the option of limited development within the specific area of the property.
Conservation and agricultural easements “run with the land” – they are permanent agreements, recorded by the County as an attachment to the property deed. All subsequent landowners are bound by the terms of the easement.
Note: The type of conservation easement depends on what type of land values are being preserved. Typically, conservation easements that preserve working landscapes such as farms or ranches are called “agricultural easements” to differentiate them from the standard “conservation easement” that preserves land for wildlife, recreation, cultural, historical, scenic, or other natural values. Often, the term “conservation easement” is used for both types of easement.
PLT relies heavily on the research and advice of the Land Trust Alliance in the creation of conservation easements, as well as our own experience and the advice of our legal counsel. PLT can be flexible about some terms of each conservation easement, and PLT staff can assist landowners by preparing a document that meets each landowner’s specific needs. Before donating or selling an easement, each landowner must be familiar with the terms of the legal document itself and must seek the advice of an attorney.