If you are due an Alabama Tax refund, and you also happen to owe child support, you can expect the money to be subtracted from the refund before it gets to your mailbox. The States and The Feds caught on a long time ago to that scam, and they routinely compare lists. But apparently nobody bothered to check on the companies receiving all of that TARP money. AP reports today that at least thirteen of the companies owe back taxes to the tune of $220-Million. That's' really small change in a time when we talk about hundreds of trillions of dollars, but its another incident, like the AIG bonuses, that will make it more and more difficult for the Obama Administration to get approval for the hundreds of billions more that will be needed to clean this mess up.
Tim,
ReplyDeleteAre these amounts owing by bailed-out companies judgments entered or simply amounts in dispute?
As you no doubt are aware, most large companies with extensive operations have multiple, overlapping, and ongoing disputes with both federal and state tax authorities, often taking years to resolve. Such is the complex and interpretive nature of modern corporate taxation; opinions on the definition of nexus, for example, can and do occupy volumes.
If the "tax bills" you reference are of this variety, your item is less news than noise.
williakz
Good points, and it is NOT clear from the stories I read exactly what the "owe taxes" means other than the obvious. Nor are the companies named. Here's a link to a Reuters story: http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN1943028120090319
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