In February of 2020, the United States Tax Court issued a Memo, Railroad Holdings, LLC T.C. Memo. 2020-22 (U.S.T.C. Feb. 5, 2020), and an Order, Rock Creek Holdings, LLC, Tax Court Order, 2/10/2020. Both the Memo and the Order pertain to the conservation easement in dispute in the cases. In the first case, the Court [...]
When it comes to the charitable donation of art, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has increasingly adopted a predictable strategy, as outlined in part two of this series. Similar to cases involving conservation easements, the IRS can even take the position that donated art is worth $0. While this is the IRS’s most extreme position [...]
As discussed in part one of this series on art donations, a taxpayer who wishes to receive a tax deduction for their charitable donation of a work of art should take several steps in anticipation of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’s) refusal to allow the deduction. In recent years, especially, the IRS has undertaken a [...]
Among the many ways that Congress uses tax laws to influence taxpayers’ spending, encouraging donations to charitable causes is perhaps the least controversial. Section 170 of Title 26 of U.S. Code, for example, has outlined Internal Revenue Service (IRS) policy on charitable contributions and gifts for decades. For many taxpayers, such donations include small payments [...]
There are many tax and social benefits to gifting a conservation easement. Unfortunately, some taxpayers are in too much of a hurry to make the contribution and do not complete all of the steps necessary to receive all of the tax benefits. The U. S. Tax Court, in Minnick and Lienhart v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo [...]