EDISTO ISLAND OPEN LAND TRUST
Mission
To preserve and protect lands, scenic vistas, heritage, and conservation resources
of Edisto Island for future generations.

2008 -- A Year For The Record Books
Edisto Island Open Land Trust HIGHLIGHTS

With the help of our Board,
ACE Basin Task Force partners,
members, volunteers and
friends like you, we have:

This is it...

2009 Is YOUR Year to Make The Move

The tax benefits for landowners who place a conservation easement on their land in 2009 are substantial. But, those benefits won't last long. The basics:

• When a landowner donates a conservation easement to a land trust, he gets to write off, as a
  tax deduction, the appraised value of the easement.
• If the landowner sells the conservation easement to a land trust, he gets to write off, as a
  tax deduction, the appraised value of the easement less the purchase price.
• In either case (donation or sale), the current IRS law allows the landowner to write off 50
  percent of his adjusted gross income on each year’s tax return, for up to 16 years, or until the tax deduction balance runs out.

However, this IRS law expires on Dec. 31, 2009. After 2009 the tax deduction for a conservation easement donation will change and will likely revert back to the pre-2006 law. The pre-2006 law
allowed the deduction to be written off at 30 percent of AGI each year with a carry forward of only
five  years.

A number of your neighbors are already working with EIOLT to conserve their land this year –
so don’t delay. Call us!