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Silver Cos. pays state, investors to settle disputed land-preservation tax credits Date published: 6/13/2010
BY RUSTY DENNEN
The Silver Cos. has settled a six-year dispute with the Virginia Department of Taxation over tax credits tied to Celebrate Virginia. The agreement was disclosed in a letter from Silver Cos. CEO Larry Silver to hundreds of investors who bought the Virginia land-preservation tax credits tied to the mixed-use development along the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg and Stafford County. Silver refunded $7.2 million to the state and about 400 mostly local investors who purchased the tax credits. Investors were not made whole; it appears from documents reviewed by The Free Lance-Star that Silver covered only about half of what the investors owed in back taxes and interest. As part of Celebrate Virginia, the Silver Cos. in 2003 set up conservation easements on 308 acres along the Rappahannock in Stafford and 129 acres in Fredericksburg. KTR Newmark Real Estate Services of New York set the fair market value of the easement on the 129-acre parcel at $31.8 million. The 308-acre Stafford easement was valued at $24 million, bringing the total for both tracts to about $56 million. Under the tax-credit program, the Silver Cos. qualified for $28 million in total credits, based on half of the easements' total appraised value. Unused credits can be transferred or sold, so the company used its allotment of credits and sold the rest to about 400 investors. Beginning in 2004, the state tax department questioned the accuracy of the appraisals, suggesting that they were too high. Then three years later, in May 2007, after getting its own appraisals, the agency notified Silver and the investors that the credits were no good, saying the value of the easements was overstated. Silver, by far the largest commercial development firm in the Fredericksburg area, has disputed that point all along. In a letter last month to investors announcing the settlement, Larry Silver said he reluctantly decided to end the fight. "It is extremely frustrating to us that we protected hundreds of acres of land fronting the Rappahannock River but did not receive what we believe is the full value in credits for the easement," he wrote. "As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished." Silver said the company spent more than $2 million on attorneys, accountants, engineers and appraisers.
Date published: 6/13/2010
Congratulations to the Tax Department for calling out the Silver Company on this fraudulent appraisal. The only land Silver put under easement was floodplain and steep slopes that had little development potential anyway! The state should have demanded every penny back of taxpayer dollars. It's a shame when developers game a great program like this easement option, which is meant to help the farmers and other true land conservationists. The Biscuit Run land scam is also headed down this route, so stay tuned!
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