Eleventh Circuit Affirms Judge Halpern's Rejection of Bullshit Tax Shelter--the Conservation Easement Variety (8/15/26)

In Evans v. Commissioner (11^th Cir. Nos. 24-11882 & No. 24-11884 Unpublished Opinion dated 8/13/26), CA11 here, GS here [to come], and Tax Notes here, the Court affirmed the Tax Court’s decisions based on the opinions Carter v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2023-133 (T.C. Dkt. 23647-15, here, at #112 and GS here), a fine Judge Halpern opinion.

The Eleventh Circuit majority gave the appellants’ bullshit arguments the treatment they deserve (even more than they deserve). (There ought to be an appellate disposition simply by rejecting an appellant’s arguments in two lines:

Appellant’s arguments are bullshit. [No exclamation mark needed; a simple statement of fact]

Affirmed.

For that reason, I hesitated to write anything on the Eleventh Circuit’s unpublished opinions in this case that have already involved grossly disproportionate attention from all involved (including perhaps not-so-innocent readers such as me).

What drew my attention was the dissent by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Wikipedia here). In my opinion Judge Branch gulped the metaphoric “Kool-Aid.” That is not surprising to me because she is a Trump appointee, who in my opinion (based on this anecdotal slim evidence) suffers from some combination of lack of skill and lack of judgment. I do note, as typical of Trump appointments in the first term, she is a long-time Federalist Society member. I could say more, but exercising atypical discretion (for me), I will defer. I  just refer readers to her dissenting opinion and compare it to Judge Halpern’s Tax Court opinion linked above. Perhaps her signal to bullshit tax shelter exploiters (both promoters and taxpayers) is that you may still have a chance to chase bullshit arguments in the hope that, on appeal, you can get a panel majority of Trump appointees who will not only tolerate but bless the bullshit.