Megan L. Brackney was quoted in a recent Tax Notes article entitled “Future Easement Charges Could Pivot on Economic Substance Questions,” published on January 29, 2021. Brackney discusses the potential future nature of syndicated easement charges and the legal issues facing easement promoters.
The article notes:
Megan L. Brackney of Kostelanetz & Fink LLP noted that practitioners have focused on conduct like backdating because of how clearly fraudulent it is. “Whereas some of the other conduct may not be that obvious unless maybe viewed in the wider context of the overall conduct,” she said.
Brackney noted that easement promoters have to worry about more than just the IRS’s civil and criminal enforcement efforts. For example, investors have filed multiple class action lawsuits. Promoters can be placed in tenuous situations when those outside actions proceed at the same time as active criminal investigations, Brackney said. “It’s difficult to engage in discovery in the civil case, perhaps being deposed. And so the promoter is often put in a position of having to choose which case to defend,” she said.
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