Summary
Tax credit for landowners who donate a perpetual conservation easement on Colorado real property to a qualified holder (land trust, govt entity). Credit equals 90% of the donation's appraised fair-market value (subject to per-year claim caps and certain qualifying-property limits). Per-easement lifetime cap of $5,000,000. The credit is freely transferable on a secondary market, allowing donors who cannot use the full credit to sell unused portions to other CO taxpayers.
Benefit
- Percentage
- 90% of qualified_capital_investment
- Flat
- —
- Duration
- —
- Max annual
- — (taxpayer)
- Max total
- $5,000,000 (per_project)
- Carryforward
- —
Program metadata
- Distribution
- taxpayer_earned
- Claimant subject
- business
- Refund/transfer election
- transferable_only
- Program family
- —
- Effective
- —
- Sunset
- —
- Application deadline
- —
- Transfer discount
- —
Hard requirements (1)
- local_approval_requiredConservation easement must be donated to a qualified holder — a Colorado-certified land trust, governmental entity, or qualified holding organization that has received a Conservation Easement Holder Certificate from the Division of Real Estate's Conservation Easement Oversight Commission. Holder certification is a precondition; donations to non-certified entities do not qualify for the credit.
Preference / tiering rules (0)
None.
NAICS industries (0)
Any.
Geo zones (1)
- statewide — · Colorado Statewide
Tags (5)
- easement_holder: qualified_land_trust_or_government
- reported_on_form: DR_1305
- transfer_form: DR_1305E
- pte_distribution_form: DR_1305F
- use_schedule: DR_1305G
Tax bases
- corporate_income_taxprimary
Approval requirements (1)
- requiredCO qualified conservation easement holder — Easement must be donated to a holder with a current Conservation Easement Holder Certificate from the Division of Real Estate's Conservation Easement Oversight Commission. Holder certification is annual; verify the holder's status before donation.
Source
§ 39-22-522, C.R.S.
Last verified: 2026-04-26
Per-year claim cap and statewide aggregate cap (~$45M/yr most years) not modeled at the row level. typical_transfer_discount_pct left NULL pending a CO-specific market data pull at production-seed time (parallel to the GA Film transfer-discount item from GA seed time). claimant_subject=business covers entity landowners (LLCs that own ranches/farms); individual landowner pathway is out of catalog scope per CLAUDE.md.