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Conservation Easements And The Proceeds Regulation, Nancy Mclaughlin Jan 2021

Conservation Easements And The Proceeds Regulation, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an in-depth look at Treasury Regulation § 1.170A-14(g)(6)(ii), known as the proceeds regulation. The proceeds regulation is intended to protect the public investment in conservation if a perpetual conservation easement that was the subject of a charitable deduction under Internal Revenue Code § 170(h) is later extinguished. A proper understanding of the proceeds regulation is critical because the public investment in deductible easements is significant—billions of dollars are being invested in such easements annually—and the regulation has recently been subject to challenges regarding its interpretation and validity. This article examines the history and operation of the proceeds …


Amici Curiae Brief, Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin Apr 2020

Amici Curiae Brief, Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Amici Curiae Brief of Law Professors et al., filed in support of the government in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Pine Mountain Preserve, LLP v. Commissioner, on appeal from U.S Tax Court No. 8956-13, 151 T.C. 247 (2018).


Second Amici Curiae Brief Of Law Professors Et Al., Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin Jan 2020

Second Amici Curiae Brief Of Law Professors Et Al., Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Second Amici Curiae Brief of Law Professors et al., filed in support of the government in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Pine Mountain Preserve, LLP v. Commissioner, on appeal from U.S Tax Court No. 8956-13, 151 T.C. 247 (2018).


Amici Curiae Brief Of Law Professors Et Al., Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin Jan 2020

Amici Curiae Brief Of Law Professors Et Al., Pine Mountain Preserve, Llp V. Commissioner, Filed In The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Amici Curiae Brief of Law Professors et al., filed in support of the government in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Pine Mountain Preserve, LLP v. Commissioner, on appeal from U.S Tax Court No. 8956-13, 151 T.C. 247 (2018).


Aba Rpte Conservation Easement Task Force Report: Recommendations Regarding Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law, W. William Weeks, Turney Berry, Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Jason E. Havens, Nancy A. Mclaughlin, James Slaton, Steve Swartz, Philip Tabas May 2019

Aba Rpte Conservation Easement Task Force Report: Recommendations Regarding Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law, W. William Weeks, Turney Berry, Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Jason E. Havens, Nancy A. Mclaughlin, James Slaton, Steve Swartz, Philip Tabas

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In October 2015, the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law (RPTE) section convened a Conservation Easement Task Force. The objective of the Task Force was to provide recommendations regarding federal tax law as it relates to conservation easements. This Report is the culmination of the Task Force’s work.

Part I of the Report is an Executive Summary of the Task Force’s recommendations. Part II provides the background necessary to understand the Task Force’s recommendations. Part III briefly sets forth the Task Force’s comments on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as it relates to charitable …


Trying Times: Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law (April 2019), Nancy Mclaughlin Apr 2019

Trying Times: Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law (April 2019), Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Since 2006, the Tax Court, District Courts, and Circuit Courts have collectively issued more than one-hundred decisions relating to the federal charitable income tax deduction for the donation of perpetual conservation easements. This outline discusses these court decisions and other developments in the conservation easement donation context. The outline was prepared for a May 3rd, 2019, program of the same name at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Presenters at the program were Nancy A. McLaughlin, Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; Stephen J. Small, Attorney at Law, Law Office of Stephen …


Uniform Conservation Easement Act Study Committee Background Report, Nancy Mclaughlin Sep 2018

Uniform Conservation Easement Act Study Committee Background Report, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This report was prepared by Nancy A. McLaughlin, Robert W. Swenson Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, in her role as Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission's Uniform Conservation Easement Act Study Committee. The report provides an overview of the Uniform Conservation Easement Act (UCEA), which was approved by the Commission in 1981, and examines the provisions in individual state conservation easement enabling statutes that differ from the provisions in the UCEA.


Tax-Deductible Conservation Easements And The Essential Perpetuity Requirements, Nancy Mclaughlin Jul 2017

Tax-Deductible Conservation Easements And The Essential Perpetuity Requirements, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Property owners who make charitable gifts of perpetual conservation easements are eligible to claim federal charitable income tax deductions. Through this tax-incentive program the public is investing billions of dollars in easements encumbering millions of acres nationwide. In response to reports of abuse in the early 2000s, the Internal Revenue Service (Service) began auditing and litigating questionable easement donation transactions, and the resulting case law reveals significant failures to comply with the deduction’s requirements. Recently, the Service has come under fire for enforcing the deduction’s “perpetuity” requirements, which are intended to ensure that the easements will protect the subject properties’ …


2016 Trying Times: Important Lessons To Be Learned From Recent Federal Tax Cases, Nancy Mclaughlin Oct 2016

2016 Trying Times: Important Lessons To Be Learned From Recent Federal Tax Cases, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Since 2005, the courts have collectively issued more than 80 opinions involving challenges to deductions claimed under IRC § 170(h) with regard to conservation and facade easement donations. This outline provides a brief history of developments in the deduction context, discusses the practical implications of the recent court decisions, and offers advice on how to file a tax return package to minimize the risk of audit. It also briefly notes various other important issues, such as the IRS's focus on valuation and syndicated deals, quid pro quo, and reserved development rights.


Conservation Easements And The Valuation Conundrum, Nancy Mclaughlin Apr 2016

Conservation Easements And The Valuation Conundrum, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

For more than fifty years, taxpayers have been able to claim a federal charitable income tax deduction under Internal Revenue Code § 170(h) for the donation of a conservation easement or a façade easement. For just as long, the deduction has been subject to abuse, including valuation abuse. Dismayed by the expenditure of significant judicial and administrative resources to combat abuse in the easement donation context, the Treasury Department recently proposed reforms, including reforms to address valuation abuse. The reforms were proposed in somewhat of an analytical vacuum, however, because there has been no comprehensive analysis of the easement valuation …


An Introduction To Conservation Easements In The United States: A Simple Concept And A Complicated Mosaic Of Law, Nancy Mclaughlin, Federico Cheever May 2015

An Introduction To Conservation Easements In The United States: A Simple Concept And A Complicated Mosaic Of Law, Nancy Mclaughlin, Federico Cheever

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The idea of a conservation easement – restrictions on the development and use of land designed to protect the land’s conservation or historic values – can be relatively easily understood. More significant and more challenging is the complex body of state and federal laws that shapes the creation, funding, tax treatment, enforcement, modification, and termination of conservation easements.

The explosion in the number of conservation easements over the past four decades has made them one of the most popular land protection mechanisms in the United States. The National Conservation Easement Database estimates that the total number of acres encumbered by …