Opinion

STEVE MOORE: The IRS went after honest landowners. It's time to end this tax nightmare

The IRS is finally rethinking its conservation easement crackdown. Now it must deliver justice for law-abiding Americans

By Stephen Moore Fox News

Published September 23, 2026 1:54pm EDT

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The IRS recently did something federal agencies almost never do: admit their approach wasn’t working.

They conceded that the approach to the Conservation Easement program tax assessments is flawed and often unfair.

In a press release last month, the IRS rightly stopped its assault — at least for now — on more than a thousand separate groups nationwide, comprised of about 250,000 individuals, who have participated in land conservation easements. The agency decided to withdraw its own arbitrary deadlines under its punitive settlement initiative for these donations that taxpayers, relying on qualified appraisals and professional advice, believed complied with federal law.

STEVE MOORE: THE IRS BECAME JUDGE, JURY AND EXECUTIONER IN A TAX-CODE WITCH HUNT AGAINST AMERICANS

This longstanding program provides tax incentives for people who have put hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine forest, ranch, and farmland into a "conservation easement" — preventing it from ever being developed. Despite some of its flaws,........

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