Wall Street Journal Supports Abusive Conservation Tax Shelters

I had a hard time figuring out how to respond to a piece by the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal – A Case of Tax Fraud – at the IRS (Agent backdated documents to punish legal deductions). They were referring to an IRS screwup that has gotten a good bit of coverage in the tax blogosphere. The Tax Court sanctioned the IRS in the case of Lakepoint Land II LLC because IRS attorneys did not inform the court when they discovered a backdating problem with a penalty form.

The Problem

Clearly the IRS deserves and has taken some lumps and if the WSJ wants to cheer a little, who am I to object? Whether the convoluted fact pattern rises to the level of fraud, I can’t figure out after having read Judge Weller’s opinion several times. If you want to give it a try here is a link to T.C. Memo 2023-111.