Historic Building Owners Battle for Tax Breaks Despite Distrust

Property owners looking to preserve historic buildings are vying to adapt a common tax tool to their advantage—if they can convince the IRS and the courts to back them.

Conservation easements typically involve the donation of undeveloped land in exchange for tax benefits. This tax tool also can apply to donations of historic but deteriorating buildings to save them from demolition.

Claiming easements for historic buildings isn’t new. But a recent wave of legal challenges for denied tax breaks suggests that landlords are ready to test the bounds of a skepticism against the practice that’s shared by the Internal Revenue ...