IRS Must Reform, Not Abandon, Conservation Easement Enforcement to Protect Honest Taxpayers
Source: "STEVE MOORE: The IRS finally blinked on conservation easements. Now finish the job | Fox News." September 23, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
The author argues that the IRS was wrong to treat all landowners who used conservation easement tax breaks as suspected criminals, since most relied on expert advice and followed the law. He says the IRS's recent decision to pause its crackdown is a good first step, but now it needs to actually fix the system—using real experts to catch genuine fraud while stopping the unfair punishment of honest taxpayers.
Conclusion
The IRS/Treasury should build on its recent policy reversal by implementing a fair, expert-driven system that targets actual fraud in conservation easement appraisals while fully exonerating and ceasing punishment of law-abiding landowners who relied on professional advice.
Premises
- The IRS itself has admitted its standardized, one-size-fits-all settlement approach to conservation easement cases 'is not well suited to the full range of' cases, effectively conceding its prior enforcement was flawed and unfair.
- Roughly 250,000 individuals across more than 1,000 groups relied in good faith on qualified appraisers, lawyers, CPAs, and land experts when participating in these legally sanctioned donations.
- IRS property valuations are often conducted by desk-bound officials who never visit the properties and lack relevant expertise, leading to arbitrary and inconsistent outcomes.
- The Tax Court backlog is so severe that cases filed today would not be resolved for roughly a decade, yet the IRS continues pushing taxpayers toward costly litigation despite creating a new Office of Conservation Easements meant to address this.
- Court outcomes for similar conservation easement claims have been wildly inconsistent, with some deductions fully sustained and comparable ones nearly zeroed out, indicating a systemic lack of fair, predictable standards.
- The conservation easement program has enjoyed 60 years of bipartisan support and periodic legislative enhancement, showing it is a legitimate and valued policy rather than an inherently fraudulent scheme.
- While some fraud exists in the program (fraudulent appraisals), the IRS's current approach casts too wide a net, punishing honest participants alongside genuine fraudsters.
Assumptions
- The taxpayers in question genuinely acted in good faith and were not complicit in inflated valuations.
- Professional advisors (appraisers, lawyers, CPAs) generally provided competent and honest guidance rather than being part of coordinated abuse schemes.
- An expert-driven valuation system would produce more accurate and fair outcomes than current IRS methods.
- The newly created Office of Conservation Easements has the institutional capacity and willingness to implement meaningful reform rather than merely rebranding existing practices.
- Distinguishing 'fraudsters' from 'honest' participants is feasible using objective, verifiable land-value data.