WASHINGTON DC (June 10, 2019) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles "Chuck" Grassley and Ranking Member Ron Wyden today pressed for fulsome and responsive replies to questions instead of partial answers from individuals associated with three entities in the committee’s investigation into syndicated conservation-easements transactions.
In three letters transmitted today, the Finance Committee leaders made clear that incorrectly citing inapplicable legal provisions is not a reason for noncompliance. The senators also made clear that questions need to be answered in writing, not just by referencing provided documents.
Sens Grassley and Wyden launched the probe into syndicated conservation-easement transactions in March with fourteen letters to groups that might have unfairly profited from conservation easements.
For several years now, the IRS has been investigating these transactions. They appear to involve promoters selling interests in tracts of land to taxpayers looking for large tax-deductions. In such an arrangement, the tax-payers get inflated appraisals of those tracts of land and grant conservation easements on that land. The resulting inflated charitable deductions are then split among the tax-payers.
The three follow-up letters sent by Sens Grassley and Wyden today can be found at the following links.
Sean Akins, Esq (for Messrs Ornstein and Schuler)
Christopher DeLacy, Esq (for Mr McCullough)
William Osterbrock, Esq (for Messrs Campbell, Pearson, and Pickett)
