John Hughes
(term ends 2024) 

Phil Payne
(term ends 2024) 

Brad Felton
(term ends 2025) 

Dale Morris 
(term ends 2025)

Deborah Fenn
(term ends 2026) 

 Jennifer Brazill
(term ends 2026)  

Kerrie Gallo
(term ends 2026) 

 

 

 

NYS Conservation Easement Tax Credit

NEW YORK STATE TAX CREDIT

New York’s Conservation Easement Tax Credit officially became part of the state tax code in 2006. This innovative credit will give New York State landowners whose land is restricted by a permanent conservation easement an annual rebate of 25% of the property taxes paid on that land, up to $5,000 per year. This rebate is available to all owners of easement-restricted land, regardless of when the easement was created, provided that the easement was wholly or partially donated to a land trust or a governmental agency. A landowner with multiple easement-restricted parcels can claim more than one tax credit, but no individual taxpayer or corporation can claim more than $5,000 in a single year. Eligible landowners will receive the rebate regardless of how much income tax they owe.

Land trusts tell us that the Conservation Tax Credit will create a powerful incentive for conservation all across the state because it:

• Removes one of the most significant barriers to easement donations in New York State: the lack of property tax relief on easement-restricted lands;
   
• Enables landowners with modest incomes, such as retirees and farmers, to conserve their land without sacrificing financial security;
   
• Continues with the land so that future owners will benefit from it as well as the original easement donors;
   
• Does not take away from the local property tax revenues.