The Land Trust Alliance: Public Policy

Conservation Tax Incentive Updates

5/15/08 Senate Passes Farm Bill, Veto Override Likely

Moments ago, the Senate voted to pass the Farm Bill by a margin of 81 to 15. As detailed in other recent alerts, we’re working to support the Farm Bill because it includes a two-year extension of the conservation easement tax incentive and increased funding for important conservation programs. This vote brings us closer to victory on several top land trust priorities, but we’re not there yet and we still need your help. More…

5/14/08 House Passes Farm Bill, Senate Next

This afternoon, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Bill, including a 2-year extension of the conservation tax incentive, by a margin of 318 to 106. This 73% yes vote is substantially more than the 2/3 majority which would be necessary to override a presidential veto, greatly improving the chances that this measure will become law.

The Senate could vote as early as tomorrow morning, so please call your Senators this evening and urge them to pass the Farm Bill. More…

5/13/08 New Farm Bill Details, Call Congress Today

The final Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) contains important new tools for land trusts–and a House vote as early as Wednesday evening could decide their fate. It contains a two-year extension of the easement tax incentive, $733 million for the Farmland Protection Program and $300 million for the Grassland Reserve Program. The only way for us to get these things is for Congress to pass the Farm Bill--and it will need your help! More

5/8/2008 Farm Bill Includes Easement Incentive, Billions for Conservation

Good news – we have confirmed that a 2-year extension of the expanded conservation easement tax incentive is included in a just-agreed to final version of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419). The bill also includes a $562 million increase for the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, $300 million in new funding for the Grasslands Reserve Program and some helpful reforms. This isn’t a victory yet. There’s still a ways to go, and we will be asking your help. More…

4/30/2008 Farm Bill Update
Last-minute negotiations continue on the Farm Bill, but there are very positive rumors about both the tax incentive for conservation easement donations, and about funding for key easement programs.
Press reports indicate that the conferees have agreed to a two-year extension of the conservation easement incentive, and that they have agreed to allocate five year totals of more than $1 billion to Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (nearly twice the funding in the 2002 Farm Bill), and $300 million for the Grassland Reserve Program (about $50 million more than in the 2002 Bill). We expect good policy changes – including multi-year cooperative agreements for FRPP that will preclude precipitous rules changes for program participants. More

4/25/2008 Promising News on the Easement Incentive in the Farm Bill

Your efforts to persuade the House of Representatives to include the conservation tax incentive in the Farm Bill are working! We still need your help to seal the deal as House-Senate negotiations continue under a new one-week extension. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) was quoted yesterday as saying that a two-year extension of the conservation easement incentive was among the items the conferees on tax items have “agreed to,” but "agreed to" has some wrinkles… More.

4/17/2008 Farm Bill Negotiators Consider Pared Down Easement Incentive

Farm Bill negotiations are in a frenzy, and the conservation easement incentive needs your help now. In the face of continued resistance by the House leadership to any tax cuts being included in the Farm Bill, the Senate has offered to cut the easement incentive provision back from a permanent extension to a two-year extension. Even a short-term extension is in severe jeopardy. More

4/11/2008 Easement Incentive Still in Play as Farm Bill Deadline Looms

The Farm Bill is headed toward final decisions, and the fate of the tax incentive for conservation easements is still up in the air. Facing an April 18 deadline, House Leadership has appointed 49 conferees to hammer out a final agreement on the Farm Bill. If your Representative is on the list of conferees, please urge him or her to support including the easement incentive in the Farm Bill. Other Representatives can also help by weighing in directly with Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) or Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-LA). More…

3/14/2008 Support the Easement Incentive over Recess, NPR Response

There’s important breaking news on two fronts today—
Farm Bill Delay Gives us Time to Push Tax Incentive
NPR Story and Land Trust Alliance Response

3/7/2008 Farm Bill Fight at Critical Juncture, New Conservation Funding Letter Needs Your Help

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) is still pushing to have a permanent extension of the enhanced tax incentive for conservation easements (section 12203 of the Senate's version of the Farm Bill) included in the final House-Senate "conference report." House leaders are saying no. Their reasons are complicated, procedural and political. The only way we can overcome them is to have Members of Congress convince their leadership that the easement incentive is important enough to set these objections aside. Find out more.

2/29/08 Crunch Time on Conservation Tax Incentive in the Farm Bill

The Farm Bill is our best opportunity to renew the tax incentive for conservation easement donations and make it permanent. Our success on this issue may be decided in the next two weeks. Your hard work has added eight new cosponsors to HR 1576 and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) continues to push for these provisions in the Farm Bill, but we need to convince key leaders in the House to make this happen. Find out more.

2/13/08 Support the Conservation Programs in the Farm Bill

Your support over the next two weeks will be critical to securing a permanent extension of the tax incentive for conservation easement donations! That incentive expired December 31st, but the Senate Farm Bill includes a permanent extension of the incentive. Call your Representatives and tell them how important these provisions are to conservation in your community and to include the conservation easement incentive and provide at least $5 billion in increased funding for conservation programs in the final Farm Bill. Find out more and how you can help.

See background, frequently asked questions, and resources on the tax incentive

2/6/2008 Advocates Alert: Letter on Tax Incentive in Farm Bill

This is a key week to reach members of the House of Representatives and encourage them to accept language in the Senate version of the Farm Bill providing a permanent extension of tax incentives for conservation easement donations and bargain sales. To demonstrate bipartisan support for these provisions, the co-chairs of the House Land Conservation Caucus, Congressmen Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) are circulating a sign-on letter to the leaders of the House Agriculture Committee. We need members of your House delegation to sign this letter! More

1/15/08 The New Tax Incentive has Expired BUT...

The conservation easement incentive passed in the 2006 Pension Protection Act (PPA) expired on December 31st – but the Land Trust Alliance is very hopeful that the incentive will be made permanent in the Farm Bill in the coming months.

The Farm Bill the Senate passed in December includes a permanent extension of the new tax incentive for conservation easement donations and bargain sales, which expired on January 1st. The House Farm Bill doesn’t have a similar provision. A House-Senate conference to work out a final Farm Bill could start in late January, but the House and Senate bills are big (1,500 pages), complex, and very different – so a final agreement will probably take weeks to finalize.

What you can do: Every bit of extra support for making the conservation easement incentive permanent in the House will help, and there are two easy ways for House members to show that support.

Has your Congressman cosponsored HR 1576, the stand-alone bill to make the easement incentive permanent? Check our list! If they haven’t cosponsored the bill, please ask them to! Tell them that this issue is going to be decided in the Farm Bill, and tell them you’d greatly appreciate their help now!

If they HAVE cosponsored, thank them – and ask them to please write House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (if they are Democrats) or Ranking Member Jim McCrery (if they are Republicans) to ask them to help ensure that the extension of the incentive for conservation easement donations in section 12203 of the Senate’s Farm Bill – which is identical to HR 1576 – is included in the final Farm Bill.

For an example, read the press release sent by Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy thanking Congressman Schuler for co-sponsoring Bill HR 1576 Supporting Local Land Conservation.

There is a good deal of talk of a Presidential veto of the farm bill. But Senator McConnell, the minority leader, believes there will be a new farm bill, as do other Republican Senators we talk to.

Need help? Want to do even more? E-mail rshay@lta.org.

See background, frequently asked questions, and resources on the tax incentive

12/14/07 Senate Passes Farm Bill with Extension of New Tax Incentive
Next Step: House-Senate Conference

View the December Advocates Alert for more information

Senate Voting on Farm Bill Starts Thursday, December 13

This is the last chance to contact your Senators to urge their support of this key conservation initiative. The Bill is likely to include the permanent extension of the conservation tax incentive, so we need your support today! View the November Advocates Alert for more information on how to take action.

11/15/07

The Senate farm bill includes the tax provisions passed by the Finance Committee several weeks ago, making the conservation easement tax incentive passed in 2006 permanent. That provision seems to be in good shape, though we don't know when the Senate will actually pass the farm bill. On November 9th, the House passed a one-year extension of the conservation easement incentive as part of a much bigger bill to extend a variety of expiring tax laws and a provision to prevent more people from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. The Senate won't just pass this -- it was passed on a party line vote in the House, and there is significant resistance to a number of the elements of this bill in the Senate.But sooner or later, the House and Senate tax committees will sit down together, either on the farm bill or on the extenders bill, to address whether to extend the conservation easement incentive for one year, or permanently. It could still happen this year, though it may slip into February.In either case, we still have time to help persuade House leaders to make the conservation easement incentive permanent!

For more information on the conservation tax incentive initiatives click here.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
IRS Guidance on Appraisers and Appraisals

For questions or more information, please contact policy@lta.org

updated 5/8/08