J.W. Glass (J.D. 2021, Florida), Notice, Conserving the Future: Policing Syndicated Conservation Easements, 32 U. Fla. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 133 (2021): 

IRS Commissioner Rettig not too long ago captured the important spirit of the controversy stating “[a]busive syndicated conservation easement transactions undermine the general public’s belief in non-public land conservation and defraud the federal government of income … [p]utting an finish to those abusive schemes is a excessive precedence for the IRS.” The IRS has proven a dedication to halting these abusive transactions by prosecuting fraud and levying heavy penalties on potential violators.

But within the phrases of famed conservationist Aldo Leopold, “conservation will finally boil all the way down to rewarding the non-public landowner who conserves the general public curiosity.” 

Basically, the tax profit supplied from conservation easements is crucial in securing priceless and distinctive land to be protected in entirety for generations. Not all conservation easement holders are dangerous actors. Actually, they arrive from all walks of life and all earnings ranges sure collectively by their want for a assure that their land might be protected.

Nonetheless, trustworthy land conservation could also be hindered when donors incentivized by the tax profit worry IRS motion. Whereas the IRS’s efforts have been gradual and largely ineffective, they often deal with the conduct of the partnerships relatively than the value determinations. In fact, the scheme of syndicated conservation doesn’t exist with out appraisers prepared to commit deceptive or fraudulent value determinations. Whereas laws supplies a preferred possibility for focusing on the partnerships, critics have revealed workarounds. Finally, it ought to be the duty of the state licensing boards to appropriate overvaluation earlier than it reaches the easement. In the long run, the laboratory of the state paired with a revised USPAP could have the flexibility to protect the worth of conservation for donors and conservationist alike. By making a mannequin of cooperative federalism that units minimal requirements, steering, and oversight of appraisers whereas urgent for extra enforcement by the state licensing boards, the profit to each earnings and conservation could also be conserved for the longer term.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/07/conserving-the-future-policing-syndicated-conservation-easements.html