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US Tax Court, 136 T.C. No. 15, April 5, 2011: Holds transferable Colorado conservation easement tax credits are a capital asset, but the transaction costs to establish the easement are not basis of the asset, and asset holding period began only when the easement donation was complete and the credits were granted by the state. The Petitioner, [...] US Tax Court, 136 T.C. No. 14, April 5, 2011: Holding that that the Tax Court judge has the same discretion as in a jury trial whether to receive evidence using standards of reliability and relevance, the Tax Court agreed with the IRS to entirely exclude taxpayer’s appraisal from trial record as “unreasonable, unreliable, and irrelevant [...] US Tax Court, 136 T.C. No. 13, April 4, 2011: On reconsideration, the US Tax Court affirms its previous decision saying that for a preservation easement to be eligible for a tax deduction, the holder of the easement must have an absolute right to a portion of proceeds from a sale after extinguishment of the easement. [...] 2011 TC Memo 71, March 28, 2011: Upholds IRS disallowance of façade easement tax deduction because the “Preservation and Conservation Easement Agreement” between the taxpayer and the donee did not satisfy the Internal Revenue Code requirement for a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of the gift from the donee — it did not state whether the donee provided [...] The Nonprofit Law Prof Blog reported March 8 that “In Private Letter Ruling 201109030 (Dec. 8, 2010), released on March 4 … the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) revoked the federal income tax exemption of an organization … [that] received donations of five conservation easements…” Each easement area was inappropriate in some significant way. The [...] Court of Appeals of South Carolina, Unpublished No. 2011-UP-086, March 1, 2011: Enforces a private negative deed covenant imposed for conservation purposes and enjoins construction of a dock at a community lot in a subdivision. (Opinion has no precedential value under SC rules.) A small limited partnership (“LP”) developed Martins Point with the express goal “to preserve [...] United States Bankruptcy Court, E. D. NY, No: 8-10-70231-478, May 20, 2010: Held a Debtor in a c. 11 bankruptcy proceeding may not sell its real property free and clear of a Development Rights restriction for agricultural preservation held by a county and town. The Debtor’s debtor-in-possession lender sought to have the property sold free and [...] T.C. Memo. 2010-283; No. 14374-08, December 27, 2010: Tax Court creates its own appraisal of the value of a conservation easement using the before-and-after method; considers evidence of lot sales after the date the easement was donated.
The taxpayer argued that only the comparable sales appraisal method could be used because data on sales of comparables conservation [...] Court of Appeals of California, Fifth District, No. F058826, Filed November 29, 2010: Upholds the facial validity of the County’s Farmland Mitigation Program provision that conversion of farmland to residential development requires the grant of an agricultural conservation easement over an equivalent area of comparable farmland, with some exceptions. Stanislaus County adopted the Farmland Mitigation Program (FMP) [...] United States Tax Court, 135 T.C. No. 24, Nov. 4, 2010: Affirms, based on a quid pro quo benefit that exceeded the donation, the IRS denial of a charitable deduction by Petitioner Rolfs for his gift to the local fire department of a house (but not the land on which it was located) for the express [...] California, Sept. 30, 2010: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed … SB1142, by Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, which aims to expand the sources of grant money that the state can use to preserve farmland through easements. The bill allows the state to buy farmland-conservation easements that also require some environmental aim, like preservation of wildlife habitat. [...] Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, No. 1017, October 5, 2010: Sets aside the conveyance of a portion of land encumbered an agricultural preservation easement that was deeded without the prior approval of the easement holder; affirms that conveyance requires such prior approval. In 1999, owner Stitzel entered into an Agricultural Land Preservation District Agreement with the [...] Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District, No. 2-09-1345, September 22, 2010: This appeal of the trial court’s balancing of equities when setting remedies for violation of a conservation easement was denied because the Appellate Court found the a balancing was appropriate and the trial court had not abused its discretion. The easement violation and remedy were [...] United States Tax Court, No. 8309-08, September 22, 2010: The TC upheld the IRS’ complete denial of a deduction for a historic façade easement but denied the IRS’ accuracy-related penalty. The taxpayer offered appraisals by two different appraisers but the preparers of only one of the appraisals testified as witnesses. The TC thoroughly discredited the appraisal prepared [...] US Tax Court, T.C. Memo. 2010-196, Sept. 8, 2010: An appraisal submitted in support of a claimed deduction for contribution of a conservation easement was not a qualified appraisal because it didn’t include the easement contribution date, the date the appraisal was performed, or the appraised fair market value of the easement contribution on the contribution [...] United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, No. 09-60085, August 10, 2010: Decides several issue about the deductibility and appraisal of a façade easement’s affect on the value of a building owned in common with the building being protected, vacating the Tax Court’s 2008 decision and remanding for further proceedings. Taxpayer Whitehouse (“W”) owned the contiguous [...] United States Tax Court, no. 15171-08, July 14, 2010: Holds (a) a mandatory cash payment by taxpayers to a façade easement grantee was not a “contribution or gift” under Income Tax Regulation 1.170A because taxpayers did not sustain their burden of proving either that the payment was not made as a quid pro or, if they [...] Superior Court of California, No. Civ 482448, June 18, 2010: Trial court finds an unconstitutional taking in Commission’s requirement that plaintiff grant a perpetual agricultural easement for “active agricultural use” of 140 acres as a condition for a permit to build a house. The requirement failed the “essential nexus” test of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, [...] A web page titled, Conservation Easements Legislative Update 2010, By R. Lee Stephens, Jr. and Robert J. Allen, posted May 24, 2010, by the Virginia law firm Spotts Fain summarizes bills signed into law following the most recent Virginia General Assembly session. Obviously, I can’t comment on [...] USDA announced May 14, 2010, that $175 million in funding is available for the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetlands Reserve Program. USDA says that funding will add 75,000 additional acres to the approximately 2.2 million acres currently enrolled in the program. The funding will go to wetland conservation projects in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, [...] |
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