Tax Incentives for Stewardship of Private Land

For the 2020 AGM, we are pleased to have guests who will discuss the Biodiversity Stewardship programme and associated tax incentives for landowners that formally commit to these agreements. The speaker will explain these different levels and incentives and the associated documents are available in advance or can be download after the AGM.

In 2003, CapeNature created the Biodiversity Stewardship programme. This incentive was established to help landowners preserve and protect biodiversity on private land. CapeNature recognised that most of the province’s biodiversity is confined to private lands. The programme was designed to assist landowners who are committed to conservation on private land. ​A summary of these different levels can be found here. 

Stewardship Agreements summarised (see document for details)

Fiscal TAx benefits

​Birdlife launched the Fiscal Benefits Project to lobby SARS to revise aspects of tax legislation to assist landowners who commit to stewardship agreements and to engage with SARS on how these tax measures would be realized. The legislation has been in place since 2003 but there had been limited focus on how to claim these benefits. The incentive rewards landowners for their conservation commitment on private land. The incentives are only applicable for formally declared areas. Landowners can deduct the value of their protected land from their taxable income, thus reducing the tax owed. This tax incentive is globally unique and its successful inclusion in a tax return creates the first ever tangible, fiscal benefit as a reward for landscape level conservation.

​These benefits will be discussed and explained at the 2020 AGM but include:
 

• Section 37D allows for a 4% straight line deduction on the value of the land for declared nature reserves, declared under (S 23 of NEM:PA Act)
• Section 37C (1) Allows for an expense deduction to costs incurred to declare and maintain land under a biodiversity management area (if declared for a minimum of 5 years under section 44 of Nemba)
• Section 37C (3) allows for  expenditure incurred to conserve or maintain an area as a nature reserve or protected environment (Section 20, 23, 28 of NEMPA) to be deducted as a deemed donation, subject to the limitations within section 18A. The Agreement must be in place for 30 years.

Below is a link to the available files that further details these benefits. 

fiscal_benefit_programme_documents.pdf
File Size:	1485 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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