On March 27, 2019, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) announced an investigation into potentially abusive syndicated conservation transactions. Senator Grassley commented on the investigation saying: ““There are very legitimate purposes for the conservation easement provisions of the tax code. But when a handful of individuals cook up a scheme to cash in at the…
Read More
The Ninth Circuit recently upheld a 2016 Tax Court case that the charitable deduction for estate taxes was limited to the post-death value of the property actually received by the charity rather than the value of such property that was included in the decedent’s gross estate. Following its decision in Ahmanson Foundation v. U.S., 674…
Read More
Overview In a recent Tax Court decision handed down in a Memorandum opinion, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) showed that it will continue to be aggressive in denying charitable deductions for transactions they might view as taking abuse of the charitable deduction available under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) §170. In Chrem v. Comm’r, TC Memo…
Read More
On September 20th, 2018, the Tax Court issued its memorandum decision granting a partial summary judgment in favor of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). This decision arrives after a series of other decisions relating not about the traditional valuation disputes and battles of the experts, but instead a quick “gotcha” by the IRS negating the…
Read More
The Tax Court recently struck down another conservation easement under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) IRC § 170(h). This case follows several other high-profile conservation easements that have been struck down recently. IRC § 170(h) and the related Treasury Regulations contain a myriad of technical requirements in order for an easement to qualify for the deduction,…
Read More
In the recent Harbor Lofts case, the Tax Court clarified that a long-term lessee of real property is not entitled to take a deduction with respect to a grant of a conservation easement on that same property.With this case, we are reminded again that easements can be completely denied, even when a substantial interest in…
Read More
On August 14, 2018 the 5th Circuit upheld the Tax Court’s September 9, 2016 bench opinion in PBBM-Rose Hill, LTD v. Comm’r. The case involved a $15,160,000 conservation easement deduction under IRC § 170(h) that was denied based on a technicality relating to strict compliance with the extinguishment regulations under Treas. Reg. § 1.170A-14(g)(6)(i) and a rejection of…
Read More
The Internal Revenue Service recently released the Applicable Federal Rates (“AFR”) and the Section 7520 rate (“7520”) for August 2018. While the AFR remains low from a historical standpoint, as do interest rates in general, there has been a recent trend of rising interest rates. The short term AFR has increased from .56% for August 2016…
Read More
Donors of conservation easements have just been put on notice by the Tax Court. Frequently, donors of conservation easements (or related parties) own nearby property. The Tax Court recently denied a deduction for a conservation easement where, without any expert opinion, it determined there was an expectation that contiguous property would increase in value. It…
Read More