472: Ernest Nesmith: The Conservation Easement Tax Strategy

My guest in this episode is Ernest Nesmith. Ernest brings over 15 years of financial services experience that include wealth management, insurance planning, and tax consulting. Ernest leverages the experience gained working in the corporate divisions of three Fortune 100 companies that include Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.

In today’s show, we will discuss Land Conservation Easements and how to utilize this vehicle as an incredibly powerful vehicle to reduce taxes legally as part of an overall strategy.

A Land Conservation Easement is a land preservation agreement between a landowner and a qualified land protection organization in which the landowner donates “qualified” land under Internal Revenue Code 170(h) and exchange may receive a federal income tax deduction in the amount equal to value of their donation.

The tax deduction is determined by determining the current value of the land and subtracting that number from the value of the land at its “highest and best” use.  These numbers are determine by thorough examination by a qualified appraiser.

How much can one deduct from his income?  As of December 2015, a person may deduct up to 50% of their income using this strategy.

This is a vehicle that accredited investors can utilize and has been extremely powerful for W-2 wage earners.

This episode was originally published as episode 418, and with previous republished episodes, I know this will be extremely valuable for listeners old and new.

Ernest and his team just opened up their latest conservation easement project, if you would like to take advantage of this as part of your tax strategy, with guidance from your own tax advisor and team (Ernest and myself are not tax professionals nor do we claim to be), please reach out to us at info@cashflowninja.com. The slots for projects such as this do fill up and did last year, there were folks that wanted to take advantage of their last project but were unable to do so. So reach out to us at info@cadhflowninja.com if you are interested because there are limited spots and they do go fast.