Tax Court: Deed Is Substantiation of Conservation Easement Donation

The Tax Court continues to define the limits on the charitable donation of conservation easements while the IRS maintains its frontal assault on these transactions. In Averyt v. Commissioner, the Tax Court considered respondent’s motion for summary judgment and petitioner’s cross-motion for partial summary judgment on the question of whether or not the timely recorded deed of conservation easement satisfied the substantiation requirements of IRC Sec. 170(f)(8).

IRC Sec. 170(f)(8) generally requires that a charitable contribution of $250 or more must be substantiated with a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the donee organization. A written acknowledgement must include

(i) the amount of cash and a description (but not value) of any property other than cash contributed; (ii) whether the donee organization provided any goods or services in consideration, in whole or in part, for any property; and (iii) a description and good faith estimate of the value of any goods or services.

The IRS argued that, as a matter of law, the taxpayers had not met the substantiation requirements of Section 170(f)(8). The taxpayers argued that the conservation deed was a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of the charitable contribution that satisfied Section 170(f)(8).

The Commissioner relied on Schrimsher v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-71, where the court held that the contribution of a conservation easement was not deductible because the taxpayers did not receive a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the donee organization. The taxpayers in Schrimsher relied on the conservation deed as evidence that the donee acknowledged the donation. The deed recited consideration of “the sum of TEN DOLLARS, plus other good and valuable consideration.” The Court held that the deed did not meet two of the three requirements of Section 170(f)(8) because it did not describe the property donated or provide a good faith estimate of its value.

The deed recorded in this case, however, recited consideration more particularly. The conservation easement in Averyt was granted “in consideration of the foregoing recitations and of the mutual covenants, terms, conditions, and restrictions hereinunder set forth.” The Court found that the deed language in this case compared favorably with the deed in Simmons v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2009-208, aff’d, 646 F.3d 6 (D.C. Cir. 2011) where the Court held that the deed satisfied the Sec. 170(f)(8) substantiation requirements. Accordingly, the Court found that the deed in this case met all of the requirements of Section 170(f)(8) including the provision that no goods or services were received in exchange for the donation.

The Court granted petitioner’s motion for partial summary judgment. The Court also determined that material questions of fact remained with regard to the other issues in dispute, so a trial may be forthcoming to determine those facts.

Read the opinion here:
Averyt v. Commissioner, TC Memo. 2012-198

One thought on “Tax Court: Deed Is Substantiation of Conservation Easement Donation

  1. Is this just another case where a taxpayer failed to appreciate the technical nature of this area of tax law and failed to comply with the terms of the code and related regulations. Now taxpayer must litigate to salvage poor attention to detail. I wonder if he retained a tax attorney to insure that he complied with these requirements.