photo-1445297983845-454043d4eef4The Tax Court, in a case of first impression, has recently ventured into the perpetuity minefield.  One Dr. Douglas Carroll and spouse Deirdre Smith, of Baltimore, Maryland, conveyed a conservation easement in 2005 over approximately 26 acres of open land in Maryland, mostly pastureland zoned for agricultural uses, to the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) and the Land Preservation Trust (LPT).  The former organization is a quasi-governmental agency, the latter a private, nongovernmental exempt organization.  The protected property consisted of two parcels of unequal size; upon the smaller parcel sat the taxpayers’ two-story primary residence, and, on the larger, a small (1,000-square-foot) house where a farmhand tenant  resided.
Continue Reading Lurching Towards Perpetuity