The IRS recently did something federal agencies almost never do: admit their approach wasn’t working.
asserted
approach → do → something
They conceded that the approach to the Conservation Easement program tax assessments is flawed and often unfair.
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approach → concede → assessments
In a press release last month, the IRS rightly stopped its assault — at least for now — on more than a thousand separate groups nationwide, comprised of about 250,000 individuals, who have participated in land conservation easements.
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who → stop → easements
The agency decided to withdraw its own arbitrary deadlines under its punitive settlement initiative for these donations that taxpayers, relying on qualified appraisals and professional advice, believed complied with federal law.
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agency → decide → law
This longstanding program provides tax incentives for people who have put hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine forest, ranch, and farmland into a "conservation easement" — preventing it from ever being developed.
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who → provide → it
Despite some of its flaws, including fraudulent property assessments, the program has long been supported by Republicans and Democrats.
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program → include → Republicans
The IRS made a concession that standardized, one-size-fits-all settlement offers "are not well suited to the full range of conservation easement cases."
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offers → make → cases
But it didn’t stop there.
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it → stop → ?
The creation of the new Office of Conservation Easements was also announced — giving hope to many that the wrongs of the past will finally be addressed in a deliberate, fair manner.
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wrongs → announce → manner
One of this administration’s best, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, deserves credit for his willingness to take a pause, look closer at these complex cases, and potentially implement corrective action to address serious questions about a law that has been around for decades.
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that → deserve → decades
This was not an easy move to make, but it is the right one.
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it → make → ?
For decades, more than a quarter of a million American taxpayers have preserved pristine land and prevented development through legal conservation easement donations on the professional advice of expert geologists, land managers, thousands of credentialed lawyers, CPAs, and certified appraisers — to name a few.
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taxpayers → preserve → few
But those law-abiding taxpayers, who listened to the advice of experts, have been treated by non-experts at the IRS as a single undifferentiated class of common criminals.
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who → abide → criminals
The IRS has been threatening billions of dollars in tax bills — even to honest taxpayers who played by the rules.
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who → threaten → rules
It’s become a political football, and a fair resolution needs to be reached quickly.
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resolution → become → ?
The Tax Court's docket remains intact and backlogged, and if hearings started today, they wouldn’t be completed for about 10 years.
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they → remain → years
Knowing this, the IRS is still pushing taxpayers to make expensive court appearances.
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IRS → know → appearances
Despite the creation of the new Office of Conservation Easements to adjudicate these cases, program participants continue to move toward trial with no fair settlement in sight.
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participants → adjudicate → sight
These cases routinely produce inconsistent outcomes in court, with judges sustaining a large share of a claimed deduction in one case while all but zeroing out comparable claims in others.
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judges → produce → others
The taxpayers are still caught in a game of Russian roulette.
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taxpayers → catch → roulette
Detailed reviews of these cases show valuations are often done behind a desk at the IRS by people who never visit the property in question, nor do they possess any knowledge or expertise in the field in which they are operating.
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they → show → which
The Treasury is rightly trying to root out fraudulent land appraisals, as they should.
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they → try → appraisals
But they are casting a very wide net that too often ensnares both the fraudsters and the law-abiding taxpayers in the same net.
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that → cast → net
The good news is that the Office of Conservation Easements has the potential to look past the IRS's faulty, deeply flawed, one-size-fits-all, foregone conclusions model and instead build a systematic process to evaluate property value based on objective and verifiable data on land values.
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size → have → values
For all the program’s shortcomings, Congress and federal government agencies spent sixty years building the conservation easement program and encouraging Americans to use it.
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Congress → spend → it
In fact, when the issue was revisited several times along the way, the tax deductions were not stopped; they were enhanced.
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they → revisit → way
By all means, go after those who have defrauded taxpayers.
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who → go → taxpayers
By all means, fix the land appraisal system so that the tax cheats can be exposed.
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cheats → fix → system
But stop punishing those who played by the rules.
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who → stop → rules
This can be achieved by using independent valuation and appraisal specialists, land-use and conservation experts, geologists, and other parties with direct, ground-level familiarity with the real value of properties put into conservation.
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This → achieve → conservation
This would help expose bad actors who committed fraud and protect those taxpayers who followed the law.
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who → help → law
Too often the Biden administration weaponized the IRS by adding tens of thousands of new agents.
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administration → weaponize → agents
Eliminating what supporters called IRS witch hunts was a clear promise that Trump campaigned on.
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Trump → eliminate → that
This is a good opportunity to stand and deliver on tax fairness.
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This → stand → fairness
It’s good policy and good politics.
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It → ’ → ?
The Aporia
