Allard Concerned by IRS's 'Hostile' Actions Toward Conservation Easements

The Treasury Department encompasses a number of important responsibilities, ranging from managing the government's accounts and the public debt; creating coins, currency, and stamps; supervising banks and thrifts; managing and promoting the domestic economy; promoting international trade and finance; detecting and preventing terror finance, money laundering, and other financial crimes; to administration of the tax code and collection of taxes owed. The breadth of these responsibilities perhaps belies the size of the $12.1 billion budget request.

While there are a number of areas of interest within the Treasury Department, I have the opportunity to delve into many of them on the Banking Committee; therefore, I intend to use my time today to examine some current practices of the Internal Revenue Service.

For some time now I have been concerned by increasingly hostile IRS actions towards conservation easements. Colorado has been a national leader in this area, so it is particularly worrisome to my constituents that the IRS is targeting legitimate easements for audits. It would appear that the IRS is attempting to dramatically narrow the number of legitimate conservation easements by applying a standard that has been struck down by federal courts two different times.

While I support investigation and enforcement of legitimate fraud, we must not target honest taxpayers, and Colorado's reputation should not be tarnished. There is a significant need for conservation easements in Colorado, and a few abuses should not end the charitable tax credit for everyone.

I have been in communication with the IRS over this matter for some months, however, I have been very frustrated that I am unable to get answers to my questions on this matter. Therefore, I will follow up with the Secretary in more detail during the question and answer period.

I would like to thank Secretary Paulson for appearing before the subcommittee. I recognize that he has a very busy schedule, so I appreciate his presence and look forward to his testimony.