Donating Conservation Easements

You can get a charitable contribution and your property taxes might be lower in the future if you donate a conservation easement. In Kayln M. Carpenter, et al. v. Commissioner, petitioners conveyed conservation easements to Greenlands, a charitable nonprofit Colorado corporation. Greenlands qualifies as a tax’exempt nonprofit organization and it’s one employee is the president, Howard Hallman.

Colorado gives a generous credit to those who donate conservation easements. There is a requirement that a qualified donee has the resources to enforce the easements. Greenlands has been scrutinized as not having enough resources and allowing improper uses of easements that people have donated to it. This most recent tax case ruled that a handshake between the owner of the easement and Greenlands is not enough to end a valid easement.

The main point of this case is that if you’re going to make a conservation easement donation, don’t do it unless you truly wish for the property to be preserved. And if you do decide to do it, be sure to use an organization with a good reputation and significant resources.

See Peter J. Reilly, Is Tax Court Decision end of Colorado Conservation Range War? , Forbes, Jan. 18, 2012. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing  (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.