Abstract
The charitable deduction for conservation easements gives rise to exceptional enforcement challenges. The promise is of a conservation benefit, lasting forever. The tax incentive is intended to help produce such benefits. The principal problem with the tax incentive, however, is that it does not facilitate a substantive, enforceable definition of conservation. The result is that valuation uncertainties can be used to benefit donors, often for questionable conservation benefits, and the IRS does not have the enforcement tools it needs, leaving it to fight valuation battles that ultimately provide little to no sense of the public benefit provided. The qualified donee, conservation purpose, and perpetuity requirements each in their own way are intended to protect the conservation promise, but each fail because the existing legal framework simply does not contemplate an ongoing enforcement role for the IRS to police contribution use or donee effectiveness, either at the level of the charitable deduction or at the level of tax exemption. These flaws have thus led the way to a retinue of wide-ranging reform proposals. At bottom, however, the proven challenges of using the charitable deduction for partial interest conservation contributions suggest that a comprehensive reform is appropriate.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.63140/zb8pd_m.jt
Recommended Citation
Colinvaux, Roger
(2013)
"Conservation Easements: Design Flaws, Enforcement Challenges, and Reform,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2013:
No.
3, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.63140/zb8pd_m.jt
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2013/iss3/3