Download or read book Is the Concept of Perpetuity in Conservation Easements Relevant written by Kimberly Lynn Muxlow and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conservation Easements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perpetual conservation easements are intended to protect the particular land they encumber for the conservation purposes specified in the deed of conveyance in perpetuity, or at least until circumstances have changed so profoundly that continued protection of the land for those purposes is no longer feasible. To protect the public interest and investment in perpetual conservation easements, and, at the same time, permit adjustments to be made to respond to changing conditions, such easements should be treated like any other form of charitable asset acquired by a government or charitable entity for a particular charitable purpose - i.e., as subject to equitable charitable trust principles. This Article outlines the considerable support for applying charitable trust principles to perpetual conservation easements, including uniform laws, the Restatement of Property, federal tax law, and judicial activity on this issue to date. This Article cautions that perpetual land protection is not appropriate in all circumstances and recommends a more considered use of perpetual conservation easements as a land protection tool. This article also explores the possible use of a number of nonperpetual conservation easements to accomplish land protection goals.
Download or read book Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity written by Leslie Ratley-Beach and published by . This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reinventing Conservation Easements written by Jeff Pidot and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No recent happening in land conservation rivals the rapid expansion of conservation easements and the related growth in the number of land trusts over the past 15 years. Among the forces driving this phenomenon are tax and other public subsidies and the view that the conservation easement is a win-win strategy in land protection. The thesis of this policy focus report is that conservation easements are a valuable land protection tool, complementing regulation, land acquisition, and tax policies, but that reforms are needed in tax and other laws and conventions governing easements, lest we risk losing the public benefits for which the easements were established.
Download or read book In Defense of Conservation Easements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This article critiques the arguments offered in favor of treating donated conservation easements as unrestricted charitable gifts (that is, as fungible or liquid assets in the hands of their government or land trust holders). It also discusses the practical and potential constitutional problems associated with proposals to change state law to permit government entities and land trusts to sell, trade, release, extinguish, or otherwise terminate the conservation easements they hold outside of judicial cy pres proceedings. Johnson County, Wyoming's, improper termination of a perpetual conservation easement, which was challenged in Hicks v. Dowd and Salzburg v. Dowd, provides the backdrop for the discussion.
Download or read book The Future of Perpetuity written by James L. Olmsted and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief article provides explanatory background material on the use of conservation easements to protect private lands and describes some of the major concerns of the land trust community regarding the use of conservation easements in the 21st century. Among the subjects discussed are conservation easement amendment and termination, making conservation easement existence and location public, taking climate change into account in conservation easements, the interaction of conservation easements and land use and zoning, and the increased reliance on management plans to inject flexibility into conservation easements. The article is downloaded along with the full Fall issue of the Long View, a publication of the Oregon State Bar Sustainable Future Section, which includes two other articles on conservation easements and an article addressing Oregon's Public-Trust Doctrine.
Download or read book Perpetual Conservation Easements in the 21st Century written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The public is investing billions of dollars in conservation easements, which now protect an estimated 40 million acres throughout the United States. But all is not well. Uncertainties in the law and abusive practices threaten to undermine public confidence in and the effectiveness of conservation easements as a land protection tool. This short article is part of a series of articles published in the law review discussing conservation easements, with a focus on what we have learned thus far and where we should go from here. This article sets the stage by describing the dramatic growth in the use of conservation easements, the various laws that impact easement creation and administration, a timeline of important legal and policy developments, and the recent surprising lack of certainty and consensus regarding what it means to protect land “in perpetuity” or “forever” with a conservation easement. The article concludes by discussing how the perpetuity issue might be productively resolved.
Download or read book Protecting the Land written by Julie Ann Gustanski and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a property owner and a conservation organization, generally a private nonprofit land trust, that restricts the type and amount of development that can be undertaken on that property. Conservation easements protect land for future generations while allowing owners to retain property rights, at the same time providing them with significant tax benefits. Conservation easements are among the fastest growing methods of land preservation in the United States today. Protecting the Land provides a thoughtful examination of land trusts and how they function, and a comprehensive look at the past and future of conservation easements. The book: provides a geographical and historical overview of the role of conservation easements analyzes relevant legislation and its role in achieving community conservation goals examines innovative ways in which conservation easements have been used around the country considers the links between social and economic values and land conservation Contributors, including noted tax attorney and land preservation expert Stephen Small, Colorado's leading land preservation attorney Bill Silberstein, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust's general counsel Karin Marchetti, describe and analyze the present status of easement law. Sharing their unique perspectives, experts including author and professor of geography Jack Wright, Dennis Collins of the Wildlands Conservancy, and Chuck Roe of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina offer case studies that demonstrate the flexibility and diversity of conservation easements. Protecting the Land offers a valuable overview of the history and use of conservation easements and the evolution of easement-enabling legislation for professionals and citizens working with local and national land trusts, legal advisors, planners, public officials, natural resource mangers, policymakers, and students of planning and conservation.
Download or read book An Introduction to Conservation Easements in the United States written by Federico Cheever and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of a conservation easement - restrictions on the development and use of land designed to protect the land's conservation or historic values - can be relatively easily understood. More significant and more challenging is the complex body of state and federal laws that shapes the creation, funding, tax treatment, enforcement, modification, and termination of conservation easements. The explosion in the number of conservation easements over the past four decades has made them one of the most popular land protection mechanisms in the United States. The National Conservation Easement Database estimates that the total number of acres encumbered by conservation easements exceeds 40 million.Because conservation easements are both novel and ubiquitous, understanding how they actual work is essential for practicing lawyers, policymakers, land trust professionals, and students of conservation. This article provides a “quick tour” through some of the most important aspects of the developing mosaic of conservation easement law. It gives the reader a sense of the complex inter-jurisdictional dynamics that shape conservation transactions and disputes about conservation easements. Professors of property law, environmental law, tax law, and environmental studies who wish to cover conservation easements in the context of a more general course can use the article to provide their students with a broad but comprehensive overview of the relevant legal and policy issues.
Download or read book The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements written by Stephen J. Small and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Landowner s Guide to Conservation Easements written by Steven Bick and published by Kendall Hunt. This book was released on 2003-05-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Perpetuity written by Melinda Harm Benson and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conservation Easement Stewardship written by Renee Bouplon and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conservation Easement Audit Techniques Guide written by U.S. Internal Revenue Service and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-03-16 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this audit techniques guide (ATG) is to provide guidance for the examination of charitable contributions of conservation easements. Users of this guide will learn about the general requirements for charitable contributions and additional requirements for contributions of conservation easements. This ATG includes examination techniques and an overview of the valuation of conservation easements. It also includes a discussion of penalties, which may be applicable to taxpayers and others involved in the conservation easement transaction. This guide is not designed to be all-inclusive. It is not a comprehensive training manual on the valuation of conservation easements.... Overview: To be deductible, donated conservation easements must be legally binding, permanent restrictions on the use, modification and development of property such as parks, wetlands, farmland, forest land, scenic areas, historic land or historic structures. The restrictions on the property must be in perpetuity.
Download or read book Tax Deductible Conservation Easements and the Essential Perpetuity Requirements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Property owners who make charitable gifts of perpetual conservation easements are eligible to claim federal charitable income tax deductions. Through this tax-incentive program the public is investing billions of dollars in easements encumbering millions of acres nationwide. In response to reports of abuse in the early 2000s, the Internal Revenue Service (Service) began auditing and litigating questionable easement donation transactions, and the resulting case law reveals significant failures to comply with the deduction's requirements. Recently, the Service has come under fire for enforcing the deduction's “perpetuity” requirements, which are intended to ensure that the easements will protect the subject properties' conservation values in perpetuity and that the public's investment in the easements will not be lost. Critics claim that the agency is improperly discouraging easement donations by denying deductions for technical foot faults, and some have called for a change to the law that would allow taxpayers to cure their failures to comply with the perpetuity requirements if they are discovered on audit. This Article illustrates that noncompliance with the perpetuity requirements should not be viewed as technical foot faults. To the contrary, compliance is essential to the integrity of the tax-incentive program and the easements subsidized through the program. In addition, allowing taxpayers to cure failures to comply with the perpetuity requirements if they are discovered on audit would significantly increase noncompliance and abuse and, given the reliance nationwide on deductible easements to accomplish conservation goals, risk fatally undermining an entire generation of conservation efforts. This Article recommends a more prudent approach: the Treasury's issuance of guidance that would greatly facilitate compliance with the perpetuity requirements, reduce transaction costs for taxpayers, and significantly shore up the integrity of the program.
Download or read book Amending and Terminating Perpetual Conservation Easements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until fairly recently, little consideration had been given to precisely what it means to protect land 'in perpetuity' with a conservation easement. But as perpetual conservation easements have begun to age, and the protected lands have begun to change hands, questions have arisen regarding the circumstances under which these instruments can be amended or terminated. This short article outlines the current guidance on this issue and offers some drafting suggestions.
Download or read book Internal Revenue Code Section 170 h written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Article is the first of two companion articles that (i) analyze the requirements in Internal Revenue Code section 170(h) that a deductible conservation easement be “granted in perpetuity” and its conservation purpose be “protected in perpetuity” and (ii) compare those requirements to state law provisions addressing the transfer, modification, or termination of conservation easements. This first Article discusses the historical development of the federal charitable income tax deduction for conservation easement donations, the legislative history of section 170(h), and the Treasury Regulations interpreting that section. It explains that section 170(h) and the Treasury Regulations contain a complex web of requirements intended to ensure that a federal subsidy is provided only with respect to conservation easements that permanently protect unique or otherwise significant properties. Such requirements are also intended to ensure that, in the unlikely event changed conditions make continued use of the subject property for conservation or historic preservation purposes impossible or impractical and the easement is extinguished in a state court proceeding, the holder will receive proceeds and use those proceeds to replace the lost conservation or historic values on behalf of the public. The companion article, which will be published in the Winter 2010 edition of the Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal, surveys the over one hundred statutes extant in the fifty states and the District of Columbia that authorize the creation or acquisition of conservation easements. That article explains that such statutes contain widely divergent transfer, modification, and termination provisions that were not, for the most part, crafted with an eye toward complying with federal tax law perpetuity requirements. The author concludes that landowners wishing to take advantage of the federal tax incentives offered for conservation easement donations should be required to draft their easements and otherwise structure their donations to satisfy the perpetuity requirements imposed under federal tax law, and any additional conditions or restrictions on the transfer, modification, or termination of conservation easements imposed under state law should also apply, and should provide an added layer of protection of the public interest and investment in such gifts.
