Is Tax Court Decision End of Colorado Conservation Range War ?
If you are considering a conservation easement donation, be sure to use an organization with a long-established track record and significant resources. Don’t do it unless you have a sincere desire for the property to be preserved. And when it comes to the valuation, there is being aggressive and there is being crazy. As we used to say at Joseph B. Cohan and Associates, “Pigs get fed. Hogs get slaughtered.”
Photographing, Writing, Flying But Ultimately Not Deducting
The Court also had issues with substantiation. Although he had receipts for his expenses, they were not correlated with the business purposes of the expenditures. Mr. Oros was representing himself in Tax Court, which is understandable given the relatively low stakes. I’m wondering if the case might have gone the other way if he had had a tax litigator in his corner. He had consulted with a CPA on the deductibility of his expenses before filing, which at least saved him penalties. Lew Taishoff did a nice piece on this case titled “I Could Write a Book.”
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.