House passes Gerlach conservation tax break bill, now up to Senate

House passes Gerlach conservation tax break bill, now up to Senate
The House passed the America Gives More Act (HR 4179), which would make the enhanced conservation easement tax incentive permanent.

Read full story here (By Evan Brandt, The Mercury)

"Since before he was elected to Congress, U.S. Rep Jim Gerlach has worked at ways to preserve Pennsylvania’s remaining farms and natural landscape.

Now that he has announced his retirement and sees his Congressional career coming to a close, he may also be closing in on a long-sought goal — the passage of federal tax legislation to encourage the preservation of valuable land through conservation easements.

A conservation easement is one of the tools of choice for the preservation of farmland and sensitive natural areas.

Private landowners in essence donate the development rights on a parcel, usually to a non-profit preservation trust, which holds them in perpetuity while allowing the landowners to continue to own the land and pass it down to future generations with the restrictions attached.

On Thursday, the House voted 277 to 130 to pass H.R. 4179, called the “America Gives More Act,” a package of five changes to the tax code approved on a bipartisan basis by the House Ways and Means Committee.

The law, if approved by the Senate and signed by President Obama, would allow landowners who sell a conservation easement to deduct the fair market value of the land conserved from federal income taxes up to 50 percent of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.

For farmers, the deduction can be up to 100 percent of their adjusted gross income provided the land remains in agricultural or livestock production.

The bill passed also increases the deduction allowed and extends from six to 16 the number of years over which the donor can take the deductions.

This deduction, first enacted in 2006 and extended several times, expired at the end of 2013 and Gerlach has been fighting to get it made permanent for several years.

Thursday’s passage in the House is the furthest along in the legislative process the effort has achieved to date.

Speaking from the floor of the House Thursday, Gerlach explained the benefits of conversation easements and highlighted local property owners who took advantage of it before it expired.

“Mr. Speaker when the time comes for families across our great country to decide the future of land that has been farmed for generations or blessed with abundant natural resources, the choices should not be between selling that land or struggling to pay a bigger tax bill to hold on to what is likely their most valuable family asset,” Gerlach said.

“The extremely difficult choices families make about their farms and their property ultimately affect not only their lives, but also the quality of life for their neighbors and the character of their communities. Conservation easements provide property owners with another choice when looking for an alternative to selling their land,” Gerlach told Congress..."