A property tax credit may be granted
for land on which a perpetual conservation easement has been donated
to the Maryland Environmental Trust or the Maryland Department of
Natural Resources (See Title 9-107 of the Tax-Property Article).
This credit will be effective for tax bills beginning with the 1987-88
tax year.
The three requirements to be met are
that the land is unimproved, non-commercial, and subject to a perpetual
conservation easement. With regard to the third requirement, the
perpetual easement must be donated to the Maryland Environmental
Trust with the Maryland Environmental Trust identified as a grantee
under Title 3, Subtitle 2 of the Natural Resources Article or to
the Maryland Department of Natural Resources with the Department
of Natural Resources identified as a grantee, and it must be approved
after June 30, 1986 by the Board of Public Works.
The property tax credit is effective
for 15 consecutive years beginning July 1 following the donation
of the easement. The property owner applies on the attached Conservation
Property Tax Credit Application. The Conservation Property Tax Credit
Application can only be completed after the easement is approved
by the Board of Public Works, and the property owner must submit
the application ON OR before October 1 to receive the credit for
that taxable year. If the easement is donated after July 1, it can
only qualify for the credit for the tax bill issued the next July
1. The original application is to be kept on file in the local Assessment
Office.
In terms of the calculation, the tax
credit is applied to 100% of the assessment placed on the unimproved
and non-commercial portion of the property placed in the easement.
Unimproved homesites should carry a farm assessment value provided
the land is actively farmed. Improved homesites or commercially
used area should be assessed in the normal manner. If the property
is not actively farmed, the land subject to the easement should
be valued at $500 per acre (Tax-Property Article 8-209.1).
Beginning with the first year and continuing
for the fourteen years thereafter, the local Supervisor is to submit
to the local government each year a copy of the assessment credit
worksheet found on the reverse side of the Conservation Property
Tax Credit Application.
Attachments:
1,
2
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