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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | September 22, 2016 12:26 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Judith L. Schwank |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Agricultural Conservation Easements - Realty Transfer Tax |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that will clarify ACT 84 of 2016 concerning the taxation of agricultural conservation easements. For three decades, transfers of agricultural conservation easements were not subject to the Realty Transfer Tax (RTT) by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. In 2014, a ruling was issued as part of a tax appeal that reversed the Department of Revenue’s prior practice and made the easement transfers subject to the RTT. ACT 84 of 2016, effective September 11, 2016, declared that the transfers were in fact not subject to the RTT. However, the ACT failed to apply the exclusion retroactively, thus approximately 270 farms placed under agricultural conservation easements between December 2014 and September 11, 2016 remained subject to the tax. This legislation will clarify the intent of ACT 84 of 2016 by applying the exclusion retroactively to transfers of agricultural conservation easements which occur after November 30, 2014. |
Introduced as SB1371