As a leading accredited land trust, Tall Timbers is invested in protecting the integrity of donated conservation easements, which are at the heart of our efforts to protect rural landscapes in the Red Hills and Albany regions. For this reason, we are grateful to a bipartisan group of congressional leaders, including Senators Steve Daines, Chuck Grassley, Debbie Stabenow, and Ron Wyden, and Representatives Mike Thompson and Mike Kelly for leading efforts to reign in so-called syndicated conservation easement transactions.
Included in the year-end congressional omnibus spending bill, the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act puts in place measures to eliminate grossly inflated, fraudulent tax deductions that threatened to undermine legitimate conservation easements. According to the Land Trust Alliance, which counts Tall Timbers among its 950 members, approximately 2,000 to 2,500 conservation easement donations are made annually for genuinely charitable purposes, resulting in about $1 billion in claimed deductions annually. Meanwhile, the IRS reported that between 2016 and 2018, fewer than 300 fraudulent syndicated transactions resulted in $22 billion in unwarranted tax deductions.
Like all accredited Land Trusts, Tall Timbers has a strict “zero tolerance” policy regarding fraudulent syndicated easement transactions, and we were proud to passionately advocate for this legislation’s passage.
Thanks again to our partners at the Land Trust Alliance, the land trust community, and members of Congress who supported this critical legislation. And, as always, thank you to the wonderful owners of 187 properties in rural North Florida and Southwest Georgia for allowing Tall Timbers to work with you, conserving more than 156,000 acres of high-quality habitat.
