Georgia Land-Use Donation Doesn’t Meet Tax Break Requirement

The U.S. Tax Court spared a partnership from accuracy-related penalties, while also ruling that the group’s donation of a 500-acre plot of land in Georgia doesn’t meet all the requirements for a corresponding tax break.

The case centers on a conservation easement: a deal in which taxpayers can claim a deduction under tax code Section 170(h) for donating land or property to shield it from future development.

But the 2011 easement Dover Hall Plantation LLC transferred to North American Land Trust didn’t meet the tax code’s requirement to perpetually protect it from future development ...