Protect Your Land

Your land is where your heritage and family history are rooted. Sharing that legacy, protecting it, and passing it on for future generations is your dream. Respecting the past and sharing in the future is the fine balance needed to make sure your land is protected for generations to come. Berks Nature can help you.

Berks Nature’s primary function is to serve as a land trust. With a land trust, families benefit from tax benefits and peace of mind knowing that Berks Nature will serve as a good land steward. Land trusts are experts at helping landowners find ways to protect their land.

By contacting our staff, you will find answers about land conservation that will help you and your family with this important decision. There are several options available for you to protect your land and provide the solution that works best for your family. The best decision is the one that works for you.

A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust (like Berks Nature) or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. It allows you to continue to own and use your land and to sell it or pass it on to heirs.

When you donate a conservation easement to Berks Nature, you restrict uses of the land pursuant to your wishes. For example, you might restrict the right to build additional structures while retaining the right to grow crops. Future owners also will be bound by the easement’s terms. Berks Nature is responsible for making sure that existing and future landowners comply with the terms of the conservation easement.

Conservation easements offer great flexibility. An easement on property containing rare wildlife habitat might prohibit any development, for example, while one on a farm might allow continued farming and the building of additional agricultural structures. An easement may apply to just a portion of the property and does not require public access.

A landowner sometimes sells a conservation easement, but usually easements are donated. If the donation benefits the public by permanently protecting important conservation resources and meets other federal tax code requirements, it can qualify as a tax-deductible charitable donation. For Federal Income Tax purposes, the amount of the donation is the difference between the land’s value with the easement and its value without the easement. Berks Nature suggests you contact your legal and financial advisors while making this important decision.

Perhaps most important, a conservation easement can be essential for passing land on to the next generation. By removing the land’s development potential, the easement lowers its market value, which in turn lowers estate tax. Whether the easement is donated during life or by will, it can make a critical difference in the heirs’ ability to keep the land intact.

Contact our office and request a Land Protection Application Packet to find out if this option is the right one for you and your family: 610-372-4992.

Donating land for conservation purposes is truly one of the finest legacies a person can leave to future generations. It may be the best conservation strategy for you if you do not have heirs interested in the land; own property you no longer use; own highly appreciated property; have substantial real estate holdings and wish to reduce estate tax burdens; or would like to be relieved of the responsibility of managing and caring for land.

Donating land releases you from the responsibility of managing the land and can provide substantial income tax deductions and estate tax benefits. Most important, if the land is donated because of its conservation value, it will be protected by Berks Nature (although our focus is on conservation land, commercial, residential, and other similar types of properties can also be donated to Berks Nature with the understanding that the organization will sell the land to support its conservation work).

An outright donation is not the only way to give land. You can continue to live on the land by donating a remainder interest and retaining a reserved life estate. In this arrangement, you donate the property during your lifetime but continue to live on and use the property. When you die (or sooner if you choose), the remaining life estate interest will pass to Berks Nature who will then have full title and control over the property.

By donating a remainder interest, you can continue to enjoy your land and may be eligible for an income tax deduction when the gift is made. The deduction is based on the fair market value of the donated property less the expected value of the reserved life estate.

If you want to own and control your land during your lifetime but assure its protection after your death, you can donate it by making a bequest to Berks Nature. However, it is recommended you first consult with us to make sure we are willing and able to receive the gift.

If you have land you would like to protect by donating it to Berks Nature but need to receive income during your lifetime, you might use a charitable gift annuity. In a charitable gift annuity, you agree to transfer certain property to a charity and the charity agrees to make regular annuity payments to named beneficiaries you specify for life.

Your gift of land usually qualifies for a charitable income tax deduction at the time of the gift, based on the value of the land less the expected value of the annuity payments.

Another option for donating property and receiving regular income is a charitable remainder unitrust. You place the land in a trust, first protecting it with a conservation easement. Then, the trustee sells the land and invests the net proceeds from the sale. One or more beneficiaries you specify receive payments each year for a fixed term or for life, then the trustee turns the remaining funds in the trust over to the land trust.

The gift qualifies for a charitable income tax deduction when the land is put in the trust, based on the value of the land less the expected value of the payments.

Charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder unitrusts are most useful for highly appreciated land, the sale of which would incur high capital gains tax.

If you need to realize some immediate income from selling your land yet would like the property to be protected by Berks Nature, a bargain sale might be the answer. In a bargain sale, you sell the land to Berks Nature for less than its fair market value. This not only makes it more affordable for the organization, but offers several benefits to you: it provides cash, avoids some capital gains tax, and entitles you to a charitable income tax deduction based on the difference between the land’s fair market value and its sale price. Funds for the purchase of land or conservation easements is limited. Berks Nature may have access to grant programs to fund the project.

The Berks County Agricultural Land Preservation Board, a government agency, has been protecting farmland since 1989 through the purchase of agricultural conservation easements. The Agricultural Land Preservation Board, a nine-member board appointed by the Berks County Commissioners, is tasked with administering the agricultural land preservation program in Berks County. Agricultural easements limit the activity to agriculture and remain with the property deed in perpetuity.

Landowners receive compensation based on an appraised value of the easement rights to be granted. To date, over 65,000 acres of farmland have been preserved through this program. If you own a farm in Berks County, you may qualify for this land protection program. For more information, please call the Berks County Agricultural Land Preservation Board at 610-378-1844 or visit their site.

An Agricultural Security Area (ASA) entitles landowners and farmers to special consideration from local and state government agencies, thus encouraging the continuing use of the land for productive agricultural purposes. The local government unit may not impose ordinances that unreasonably restrict farm structures or practices within the ASA, nor may normal farming operations and practices be deemed nuisances in a nuisance ordinance. The key features of the Agricultural Security Area Law (Act 43) may be: possible farmer protection from condemnation, protection from nuisance laws, and the ability to apply to the Berks County Agricultural Conservation Easement (ACE) program. ASAs do not restrict land use or negatively impact landowners. Your municipality administers ASAs. For more information, contact your municipality to inquire about this program.

The Clean & Green Act of 1974 was established to offer preferential tax assessment to owners of farmland, forestland, and open space by taxing land according to its use rather than the prevailing market value. The program is administered by the Berks County Assessment Office. The program is voluntary and generally requires that a 10-acre minimum remain in designated use (agricultural use, agricultural reserve, and forest reserve). Parcels of less than 10 acres and capable of producing $2,000 annually from the sale of agricultural products are eligible for the agricultural use designation. Land taken out of the permitted use becomes subject to a rollback tax, imposed for up to seven years, and an interest penalty.

To learn more or apply to the Clean and Green program, you can request information and an application from the Berks County Assessment Office. The telephone number for this office is 610-478-6262. Clean and Green is not a permanent land protection tool. It is possible to have your land enrolled in Clean and Green and protect it with a conservation easement at the same time.

Call Berks Nature at 610-372-4992 and schedule an appointment with the land protection staff to discuss your special property and your wishes. If there are others in your community who may be interested in learning more about land protection options, we welcome the opportunity to speak at a township meeting, church group, grange meeting, etc. We encourage you to involve your legal and/or financial advisors during this important decision-making process.