If you donate your land to our Trust for any purpose, you may qualify for a significant income tax deduction, avoid capital gains taxes, and, in many cases, achieve significant estate tax savings. You can donate land that provides excellent habitat for wildlife, which we will protect permanently as a wildlife sanctuary. You also can donate land that is unsuitable for permanent sanctuary protection, provided you agree that we have an option to eventually trade or sell it in order to acquire another more suitable property as a wildlife sanctuary and/or to support our stewardship of existing sanctuary properties.

How You Benefit:

• Permanent protection of your sanctuary land

• State and federal income tax savings

• State and federal capital gains tax savings for any appreciation over the original cost of your property

• State inheritance tax savings and, if the value of your estate is more than the current exclusion, federal estate tax savings

Examples:

Assumptions: Your land has an appraised value of $250,000, and you paid $50,000 for it originally.

• You donate title to your land to The Wildlife Land Trust. We agree to keep and protect it forever as a sanctuary for wildlife. It would never be developed by us nor by anyone else. Therefore commercial or recreational hunting or trapping or other assaults on wildlife would never be permitted on this land.

• You donate your land to The Wildlife Land Trust but, because of the land's location, size, use, or condition, you agree that it does not need to be kept by us forever as a permanent wildlife sanctuary. We would then, at our option, sell or exchange it in order to acquire more suitable land and/or to fund our stewardship obligations for existing sanctuary properties.

• You donate your land to The Wildlife Land Trust and you agree that it may be sold or exchanged as long as it continues to be permanently protected. We would then place a permanently binding conservation easement on it, and, should we ever sell it, this easement would protect your land forever as a wildlife sanctuary. We would use any sale proceeds to assist our permanent oversight responsibilities for this sanctuary property, as well as for other sanctuary properties that we permanently protect, and/or to help us acquire additional sanctuary land and protective conservation easements.

Your Tax Savings for Any Title Donation:

• Appraised value of your property $250,000

• Your cost basis $50,000

• Charitable deduction to apply against your adjusted gross income $250,000

• Federal capital gains taxes avoided ($200,000 x .10 or .20, depending on given tax bracket) $20,000 to $40,000

• Amount removed from your taxable estate $250,000

« Return To Conservation Options For Land Owners