Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Twenty Things Real Estate Attorneys Can Do To Not Mess Up A Section 1031 Exchange (Part 2: Items 11-20), Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Amendment Clauses In Easements: Ensuring Protection In Perpetuity, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Internal Revenue Code § 170(h)(5)(A) requires that the conservation purpose of a deductible conservation easement be “protected in perpetuity.” This article explains how the protected-in-perpetuity requirement should limit the parties’ ability to reserve the right to make post-donation changes to the terms of a deductible easement.

Qap Out: Why The Federal Government Should Require More From How States Allocate Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Connor Blancato

Journal of Law and Policy

Prohibitively high land acquisition and construction costs block affordable housing developers from using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program in high opportunity areas. Policymakers must study the history of housing policy in the United States and realize that the LIHTC program works because it suitably balances previously problematic private-market competition, federalism concerns, and compliance issues. Federal lawmakers can look to Qualified Allocation Plans drafted by individual states as a way to encourage the construction of affordable housing without upsetting this equilibrium. To encourage such development, the federal government can require states, in determining tax credit allocations through QAPs, to give …

Twenty Things Real Estate Attorneys Can Do To Not Mess Up A Section 1031 Exchange (Part I: Items 1-10), Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Discounts For Fractional Ownership Of Real Property Are Accepted, So Why Haven’T The Irs And Courts Accepted Discounts For Fractional Ownership Of Artwork?, Maren N. Eisenmesser

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In 2014, the Fifth Circuit held that Mr. Elkins’s estate was entitled to apply a fractional ownership discount to determine the taxable value of the undivided interest in artwork. The estate received a $14 million refund plus interest. The Internal Revenue Code directs taxpayers to value the items in a gross estate at their fair market value. Fractional ownership adds another problem in the valuation of an estate’s interest property. In general, courts have accepted fractional ownership discounts for real property. In contrast, courts have been reluctant to apply a fractional ownership discount for artwork. This Note will argue that …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Georgist Perspective Of Petroleum Taxation, Joseph Leeson

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Over a century ago, the town of Arden, Delaware, was founded on a unique single-tax-community system that radically altered the popular concept of land ownership. This system was premised on concepts developed by a man few know today but who was a major figure in economics during the 1800s, Henry George. George's public finance theory has been described as having received "intermittent attention over the years, with many eminent names in economics making at least a passing comment, but it has seen comparably little action in the policy debate arena and has been largely ignored by the modern era of …

Money That Costs Too Much: Regulating Financial Incentives, Kristen Underhill

Indiana Law Journal

Money may not corrupt. But should we worry if it corrodes? Legal scholars in a range of fields have expressed concern about “motivational crowding-out,” a process by which offering financial rewards for good behavior may undermine laudable social motivations, like professionalism or civic duty. Disquiet about the motivational impacts of incentives has now extended to health law, employment law, tax, torts, contracts, criminal law, property, and beyond. In some cases, the fear of crowding-out has inspired concrete opposition to innovative policies that marshal incentives to change individual behavior. But to date, our fears about crowding-out have been unfocused and amorphous; …

Defining Fishing, The Slippery Seaweed Slope, Ross V. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., Rebecca P. Totten

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In Maine, the intertidal zone has seen many disputes over its use, access, and property rights. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, Ltd., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that rockweed seaweed in the intertidal zone is owned by the upland landowner and is not part of a public easement under the public trust doctrine. The Court held harvesting rockweed is not fishing. This case will impact private and public rights and also the balance between the State's environmental and economic interests. This Comment addresses the following points: first, the characteristics of rockweed and the …

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

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 …

Afterlife Of The Death Tax, Samuel D. Brunson

Indiana Law Journal

More than a century ago, Congress enacted the modern estate tax to help pay for World War I. Unlike previous iterations of the estate tax, though, this one outlived the war and accumulated additional goals beyond merely raising revenue. The estate tax helped ensure the progressivity of the tax system as a whole, and it limited the hereditary ability to accumulate wealth.

This modern estate tax almost instantly met with opposition, though. The opposition has never been sufficient to entirely eliminate the estate tax, but it has severely weakened its ability to raise revenue and to prevent the accumulation of …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Are You An Investor Versus A Dealer In Real Property? (Powerpoint), James B. Sowell, Stephen J. Giordano

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

California Department Of Toxic Substances Control V. Westside Delivery, Llc, Mitch L. Werbell V

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in California Department of Toxic Substances Control v. Westside Delivery, LLC reminds prospective purchasers of tax-defaulted property of their responsibility for due diligence.The case addressed the reach of the third-party defense to a CERCLA cost recovery action. The court determined that CERCLA’s third-party defense did not apply to a company which purchased a contaminated property at a tax auction because of its “contractual relationship” with the former owner-polluter and because the relevant contaminating acts occurred “in connection with” the prior polluter’s ownership of the site.

Code Sec. 1031 After The 2017 Tax Act, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Natural Property Rights Straitjacket: The Takings Clause, Taxation, And Excessive Rigidity, Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

Natural property rights theories have become the primary lens through which conservative jurists and scholars view the Constitution’s main property rights provision, the Takings Clause. One of their most striking arguments is that progressive income taxation — applying higher tax rates to higher incomes — is an unconstitutional taking of wealthy taxpayers’ property. This has become part and parcel of well-established battle lines between conservative property rights advocates and their liberal counterparts. What has gone unnoticed is that the very same argument deployed against progressive taxation also deems regressive taxation — applying lower tax rates to higher incomes — an …

Unconscionable: Tax Delinquency Sales As A Form Of Dignity Taking, Andrew W. Kahrl

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stategraft, Bernadette Atuahene, Timothy Hodge

All Faculty Scholarship

Although sometimes difficult to detect, governmental power abuses can have detrimental impacts. Property tax assessments provide an effective lens to examine this phenomenon because, given the complexity of calculating property tax assessments, it is difficult for citizens to know when local government has exceeded its legitimate taxing authority and crossed into the realm of illegal extraction. Michigan is an ideal case study because it protects property owners by making assessment-related power abuses more visible through a unique state constitutional provision: property tax assessments cannot exceed 50 percent of a property’s market value. Abuses have persisted nevertheless. Between 2011 and 2015, …

The Federal Law Of Property: The Case Of Inheritance Disclaimers And Tenancy By The Entireties, David Gray Carlson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Getting Local Governments Where They Need To Go Without Taking Taxpayers For A Ride: "Cabs," Why They Are Used, And What Can Be Done To Prevent Their Misuse, Heather G. White

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Taking Back Bitcoin, Zachary Segal

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Institutes - Property And Tax Issues, Sister Cecilia Meighan

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

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’ …

Perspectives - Jonathan Denham And Paul Wolf Of Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, James Hagy, Kelly Padden

Rooftops Project

In a conversation with Kelly Padden and Professor James Hagy of The Rooftops Project, Jon Denham and Paul Wolf reflect on their experiences with not-for-profit projects across mission types to draw lessons about creativity in locating and securing permanent space in one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.

Perspectives - Bms Building Management Systems, James Hagy, Frank Loffreno

Rooftops Project

How can not-for-profit organizations better prepare themselves to launch and sustain effective relationships with their outside janitorial, security, and maintenance service providers? Mike Doherty, President and CEO of BMS Building Management Services, and members of his New York City team consider these themes with Frank Loffreno and Professor James Hagy of The Rooftops Project.

Perspectives - Wework, James Hagy, Stephen Caracappa

Rooftops Project

While the concept of executive office suites has existed for decades, in recent years innovations have emerged seeking to provide a broader range of services and a sense of community combined with affordability and flexibility. Stephen Caracappa and Professor James Hagy of The Rooftops Project talk with WeWork executives David Fano and Mark Lapidus (Class of 2012) about the company’s business model, space concept and design, and the applications for not-for-profit organizations.