A BILL to amend and reenact § 58.1-512 of the Code of Virginia, relating to land preservation tax credit; maximum amount increase.
HB805 amends Virginia’s land preservation tax credit statute, § 58.1-512, to increase the annual statewide cap on credits that may be issued beginning in calendar year 2026. Under the bill, the maximum amount of credits issuable in a year would be $100 million, adjusted annually for inflation using the CPI-U, replacing the current $75 million cap that applies through 2025. The bill keeps the existing framework for claiming credits for qualifying donations of land or interests in land preserved for agricultural, forestal, open space, natural resource, biodiversity, watershed, or historic preservation purposes.
The bill does not change the basic eligibility rules for the credit, but it preserves and restates the detailed administrative requirements governing appraisals, application deadlines, conservation-value verification, carryforwards, and transferability. It also maintains the requirement that the Governor recommend a general fund appropriation tied to the difference between the inflation-adjusted cap and $75 million, with the resulting funds allocated among the Virginia Land Conservation Fund, the Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund, and the Virginia Farmland and Forestland Preservation Fund. In effect, HB805 would expand the amount of tax credit authority available for land conservation donations while leaving the underlying conservation-credit structure intact.
HB805 would amend § 58.1-512 of the Code of Virginia to raise the annual ceiling on land preservation tax credits beginning in 2026 and index that ceiling to inflation thereafter. This would increase the amount of tax credits available to individuals and corporations donating qualifying conservation interests, and it would likely increase the fiscal exposure of the Commonwealth relative to the current $75 million annual limit. The bill also preserves the statutory reporting, verification, and audit provisions that govern the Department of Taxation and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, as well as the associated budget appropriation mechanism tied to the cap increase.
The available context suggests the bill was introduced as a pro-conservation, pro-land-preservation measure, with the apparent goal of expanding the state’s capacity to reward qualifying land donations. However, there is no recorded committee debate or vote history in the provided materials, and the bill was left in the House Committee on Finance. That status suggests the proposal did not advance, but the record provided does not show explicit support or opposition statements.
The main point of contention is likely fiscal: increasing the annual credit cap and indexing it to CPI-U would raise the amount of tax credits the Commonwealth may issue and could increase budgetary costs. Any debate would also likely center on whether the land preservation credit program is already sufficiently funded at the current cap, and whether additional credits should be prioritized over other tax or spending uses. The bill’s detailed verification and appraisal rules, along with the continued requirement for conservation-value review on large or parcel-splitting donations, indicate ongoing concern about program integrity and potential abuse, but no specific objections are documented in the provided transcript or vote history.