CNBC Quotes Carolyn Schenck on Conservation Easements

Congress is moving to expand a land preservation tax incentive that has spent nearly a decade under IRS scrutiny. House and Senate proposals of the farm bill would create a new program to provide funding to landowners who agree to keep forests intact rather than sell or develop them.

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Many lawyers refuse to advise on conservation easements altogether. However, Carolyn Schenck, former IRS national fraud counsel, told CNBC that conservation easements shouldn’t be written off.

“The fact that some taxpayers abuse the rules, I don’t think means that the underlying policy lacks value in any way,” said Schenck, who left the IRS in 2025 for law firm Caplin & Drysdale. “I think there is a sentiment at the IRS that properly supported conservation easement is not a loophole.”

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