Extinguishing and Amending the Tax-Deductible Conversation Easements: Protecting the Federal Investment after Carpenter, Simmons, and Kaufman

Abstract

The Internal Revenue Service‘s victory in Carpenter v. Commissioner represented an important step in the agency‘s ongoing efforts to both address abuses and establish precedent consistent with congressional intent in the conservation easement donation context. While Congress has clearly favored providing a charitable income tax deduction under Internal Revenue Code section 170(h) to encourage the donation of conservation easements, Congress also has been willing to do so only if the easements are "granted in perpetuity" to government and nonprofit holders "exclusively for conservation purposes" and the conservation purposes of such easements are "protected in perpetuity."