Easement Valuations Not So Easy Anymore
One development is the recent Tax Court decision in the case of Gordon and Lorna Kaufman. The Kaufman’s easement deduction had been disallowed on technical ground in an earlier Tax Court decision, but the First Circuit overturned that decision. I covered the First Circuit decision here. So the Tax Court got the case back in order to decide what the value of the easement was.
The problem with valuing the easement was that the property was already subject to a lot of restrictions due to its location in Boston’s South End Landmark District. Giving up your rights to change the façade of a building in such a neighborhood can be a bit like me renouncing my superpowers. That ended up being the Tax Court’s conclusion on valuation. The court went along with the IRS expert’s criticism of the taxpayer’s appraiser
Bitcoins Not Tax Fairy Dust – Second Life Still A Tax Haven?
There are sixteen questions. Nine of the questions (Questions 3,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15) are there to drive home the point that when you are paying or receiving virtual currency, you have the same obligations and tax consequences as if you would if you were paying or receiving dollars.
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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.