Article on Graev v. Commissioner

Wendy C. Gerzog (University ofBaltimore School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Graev: Conditional Façade Easement, TaxNotes, Vol. 140, No. 14, 2013.  Provided below is the abstract from SSRN:

In Graev v. Commissioner, the Tax Court decided whether the taxpayers’donations of a facade easement and cash contributions were conditional giftsand therefore disallowable as charitable deductions under the requirements ofthe regulations. The court reviewed the facts to determine whether thecondition was allowed because it was “so remote as to be negligible.” Thetaxpayers argued that case law at the time of the donation allowed for adonation of between 10 and 15 percent of the value of the property, and thatthey had deducted a value constituting 11 percent of the property’s appraisedvalue; that the example provided in Notice 2004-41 did not apply to thespecific transaction at issue; that there was no possibility that the charitywould return the property; that when the easement deed was recorded, thedoctrine of merger extinguished the charity’s refund letter; and that theletter was a nullity under Commissioner v. Procter.