A new tax court decision came down the other day throwing out a conservation easement on the grounds that their highest and best use valuation was unrealistic.
There are multiple failure points for conservation easements.
- Does the property actually exist?
- Does the person who is claiming the easement actually own it?
- Is the market value impact realistic?
This particular case was on that last one.
Like everything on the so-called Dirty Dozen list it is generally not that these strategies don't exist or aren't valid. It's usually more a case of bad actors ruining the neighborhood for everyone else.