Continued
The land trust takes on the responsibility and legal right to enforce the easement. If a future owner or someone else violates the easement the land trust will work to have the violation corrected.

Financial Benefits
If you donate a conservation easement that meets federal tax code requirements, the value of the easement can be treated as a charitable gift and deducted from income tax (to the extent your particular tax situation allows).

For income tax purposes, the value of the easement is the difference between the land's value with the easement and its value without the easement.

Easement values vary greatly; in general, the highest easement values result from very restrictive conservation easements on tracts of developable open space under intense development pressure.

Because a conservation easement lowers the property's fair market value, it can also result in lower property taxes.

Dealing with Estate Taxes
If you own land with substantial value you may not be able to pass it on intact to your heirs. When you die, your children may find that the federal estate tax, which is based on the land's current fair market value and is levied at rates as high as 55%, is in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Selling all or part of the land for development may be the only way to pay the estate tax.

But if you place an easement on the land restricting future development, its fair market value will, in most cases, be reduced, resulting in lower estate taxes.

A conservation easement can also be donated by will. It has the same effect on estate taxes as a lifetime donation. You should be sure to negotiate the easement with the land trust before including it in your will; this assures that the organization is willing and able to receive it and that the easement achieves what you want it to.