by admin | Feb 24, 2024 | Tax
Original Your Tax Matters Partner material by Peter J. Reilly The IRS and Department of Justice have been waging a dramatic struggle against abusive conservation easement deductions. I have been covering easement deduction developments – the good, the bad and...
by admin | Jan 29, 2024 | Tax
The big news last week for those who follow the controversy around syndicated conservation easements (SCE) is the extremely harsh sentences handed down by Judge Timothy Batten to CPA Jack Fisher and lawyer James Sinnott. Fisher got 25 years and Sinnott 23 years. ...
by admin | Dec 2, 2023 | Tax
Tony Townley is one of the cofounders of Zaxby’s a chain of fast casual restaurants. There are more than 900 locations in 17 states. Goldman Sachs acquired a major stake to help accelerate growth in 2020. Zaxby’s has concentrated on selling...
by admin | Nov 13, 2023 | Tax
Judge David Gustafson injected a good dose of common sense into the ongoing struggle between the IRS and the syndicators of conservation easements. His opinion in Mill Road 36 Henry LLC lays bare the nonsense that has created the syndicated conservation easement...
by admin | Nov 1, 2023 | Uncategorized
This table comes from the Tax Court decision in Mill Road 36 Henry LLC. In each case promoters applied for conditional zoning approval to build an assisted living facility in Henry County GA. They then brought in investors and donated a conservation easement rater...
by admin | Oct 23, 2023 | Tax
I had a hard time figuring out how to respond to a piece by the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal – A Case of Tax Fraud – at the IRS (Agent backdated documents to punish legal deductions). They were referring to an IRS screwup that has gotten a...
by admin | Jan 4, 2023 | Tax
Kenneth M. Brooks v Com may be the final decision this year in the IRS battle with dubious conservation easement deductions. The IRS disallowed the deduction on three separate grounds independent of valuation. There was not a proper acknowledgement by the donee,...
by admin | Dec 23, 2022 | Tax
As somebody who believes that the syndicated conservation easements (SCE) constitute an industry based on nonsense, I want to be able to tell you that if you are offered the chance to participate in one, you absolutely should not. I can’t really do that though. ...
by admin | Dec 2, 2022 | Tax
The full Tax Court in one of its regular decisions (Green Valley Investors LLC) has dealt a blow against the IRS in its struggle with abusive syndicated conservation easements. A key IRS move in the fight was Notice 2017-10 which made certain syndicated conservation...
by admin | Jul 24, 2022 | Tax
In Green, or Greed? A Fresh Perspective on the Valuation of Conservation Easements, three Boston University Law professors, Alan Feld, Theodore Sims and Jacob Nielsen give us a fresh perspective on one of the IRS Dirty Dozen. That would be Abusive Syndicated...
by admin | Apr 2, 2022 | Tax
The IRS just recently picked up a win in its war on syndicated conservation easement (SCE) deductions. The Sixth Circuit confirmed the full Tax Court decision written by Judge Lauber in Oakbrook Land Holdings. The issue was about what terms are required to make an...
by admin | Mar 15, 2022 | Tax
Syndicated Conservation Easement (SCE) products aren’t produced in vacuums. there are teams of people constructing and assembling a variety of documents that support each fund’s capital raise. In the past, if one of those procedural links failed it was treated...
by admin | Jan 13, 2022 | Tax
The Eleventh Circuit has thrown a monkey wrench into the IRS machinery grinding away at abusive conservation easement deductions. Judge Barbara Lagoa, a Trump appointee, wrote the opinion in David and Tammy Hewitt v Commissioner of IRS issued on December 29, 2021. ...
by admin | Sep 25, 2021 | Tax
The tax legislation floating around the House Ways and Means Committee that doesn’t seem to have a name includes a provision that supporters of conservation easement deductions have either longed for or dreaded. The Partnership for Conservation (P4C), the trade...
by admin | Sep 17, 2021 | Tax
The IRS fights its battle against abusive syndicated conservation easements in actual courts side by side with the Department of Justice (DOJ). IRS and DOJ also fight the battle in the metaphorical court of public opinion with press releases and comments by...
