IRS Creates Conservation Easement Office

The Internal Revenue Service announced the formation of an Office of Conservation Easements to centralize its approach to handling conservation easement cases. According to a news release published on August 19, 2026, the agency’s move reflects a shift from “the current uniform settlement initiative effective today.” As such, it will stop issuing uniform settlement letters, while withdrawing deadlines for accepting previously issued offers.

According to the news release, the IRS concluded that “standardized, unsolicited settlement letters on a rolling basis, each with a fixed response period, are not well suited to the full range of conservation easement cases.” The new Office will take a consolidated strategy, with technical expertise in one place. It will also “coordinate policy, enforcement, and case-resolution strategy across the IRS and with the Office of Chief Counsel.” At the same time, the Office will promote the IRS’s work engaging “with taxpayers, practitioners, conservation and historic preservation organizations, and other stakeholders.” Finally, it will work with the Department of the Treasury to assess potential “administrative and legislative options” to advance Congress’s goals with respect to conservation and historic preservation.

The preexisting uniform settlement initiative was concluded as of August 19, 2026. “Taxpayers with pending cases may continue to request settlement under the May 13 framework through their assigned IRS examination or Chief Counsel representative,” the IRS explained in its news release. For cases that are still eligible for settlement, the IRS will send out a new offer including the same terms. Some cases may yet be resolved on different terms, it added, “where warranted by the hazards of litigation.”

A ProPublica report described conservation easements as entities created when a landowner protects a parcel of land from development. This entity supposedly provides a benefit to the public by protecting the undeveloped land, offering a “pristine” tract for the general public to enjoy. At the same time, the landowner enjoys a charitable deduction. The problem with conservation easements, per ProPublica, is that “profit-seeking middlemen known as ‘promoters’” purchase undeveloped land, get an appraiser to attest that it has “huge development value and thus is worth many times the purchase price,” and proceed to sell interests in this land to investors. As the investigation describes, these investors reap deductions that may total five times or more their investments. In 2019, the IRS added conservation easements to its “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams in 2019. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee initiated investigations of conservation easement promoters, with lawmakers drafting bills that would stop landowners from creating them altogether.

Carlson Law represents investors throughout the United States in claims against financial advisors and investment firms. If you or a loved one have suffered losses on conservation easement investments, please call us at 888-976-6111 or complete our contact form for a free and confidential consultation.