The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with decisions in the Ninth and Tenth Circuits and has held that the grant of a conservation easement is not eligible for a charitable contribution deduction when the underlying property is subject to a mortgage that has not been subordinated to the easement. As a result, RP Golf, LLC, the owner of two private golf clubs in Missouri, has lost its claim for a $16.4 million deduction. RP Golf developed two private golf clubs in Platte County, MO, in 1997 and 1998 and funded the acquisition and development with bank loans secured by mortgages. In 2003, it granted a permanent conservation easement to a local land trust to “further the policies of...