Janet R. Braen, et al., T.C. Memo. 2023-85, filed 7/11/23 had her hash and the als’ hash settled long before Judge Patrick J. (“Scholar Pat”) Urda got this case. Janet and the family Sub S were trying to add some granite to their quarrying empire in Rockland County, NY. They spent $3.4 million buying the land, but found out that NYs NIMBY crowd were a lot harder to deal with than granite.
After knocking heads with town and village, Our Fair State’s Department of Environmental Conservation saw Janet and the als off conclusively. So Janet and the als sued the town to undo a particularly comprehensive zoning plan that would have shredded whatever was left of their equity. To settle, the town dropped the zoning, and Janet and the als sold most of the land to the town in what they claimed was a bargain sale, and claimed a hefty Section 170 charitable.
I won’t go into the battling appraisals, except to state that Excelsiorland boondockery takes second place to no one, certainly not Dixieland boondockery.
Of course, notwithstanding a couple CPAs in attendance (hi, Judge Holmes), Janet and the als get the Form 8283 wrong, and the post-event Contemporaneous Written Acknowledgement from the town attorney spills the beans on the settlement.
Quid pro quo means no deduction. See my blogpost “Listen to Your Lawyer,” 6/19/14, for a case that Judge Scholar Pat quotes in extenso.
So the deduction being toast, the boondockery mix-and-match only serves to hand Janet and the als the substantial valuation misstatements chop.
They settled, and that settled their hash.
Edited to add, 7/15/23: Maybe this case isn’t a one-off.
Taishoff Law 
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