Analyzing Five Obscure IRS Actions in 2020 with Serious Implications for Conservation Easement Disputes





The IRS has been aggressively challenging partnerships that donate conservation easements for years, with widespread publicity being a hallmark of enforcement. As a result of this information campaign, supplemented by a steady flow of Tax Court decisions, most people have a decent understanding of the current state of affairs. The IRS has taken some critical steps in recent months, though, that have gone largely unnoticed. They consist of appointing a Promoter Investigations Coordinator, creating a new Fraud Enforcement Office, publishing an expanded Form 8886 (Reportable Transaction Disclosure Statement), eliminating certain procedural protections for taxpayers during easement audits, and scrapping a multilevel review process designed to avoid improper appraiser penalties. 

This article provides  

  • Overview of the easement donation process
  • Description of many of the well-known IRS enforcement techniques
  • Analysis of the significance of the more obscure steps, largely procedural in nature, taken by the IRS lately.

About Hale E. Sheppard

HALE E. SHEPPARD, Esq. (B.S., M.A., J.D., LL.M., LL.M.T.) is a Shareholder in the Tax Controversy Section of Chamberlain Hrdlicka and Chair of the International Tax Group.

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