Conservation Easement Tax Deduction Coverage Round Up
The Senate Finance Committee report on syndicated conservation easement transactions released on August 25, 2020, is a dramatic development. I have been covering conservation easement tax deductions for nearly a decade and think that a summary of that coverage might be timely. Articles are in reverse chronological order with brief explanations where the title is not self-explanatory.
IRS Carves Back TCJA Inventory Relief
The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act created an exemption from keeping inventories for “certain small businesses” that are not tax shelters.
There were three ways out. One was to treat the inventory as “non-incidental materials and supplies”. The next was to treat the goods in the same way as you treated them on an “applicable financial statement”. The third option, for those who did not have an applicable financial statement, was to conform with “books and records of the taxpayer prepared in accordance with the taxpayer’s accounting procedures” (BRAP).
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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.