US:Judge Orders IRS To Pay Buffett Firm More Than $23 Mln
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES October 28, 2005 12:58 p.m.
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)--A federal judge on Friday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay billionaire Warren Buffett's investment firm more than $23 million in taxes and interest for disallowing certain deductions.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom ended some three years of legal wrangling between Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA) and the IRS.
The case stemmed from two lawsuits that alleged the IRS made an "erroneous, wrongful and illegal" interpretation of the U.S. Tax Code when it denied the deductions.
The original lawsuit, filed in 2002, said the IRS wrongly assessed more than $16 million in taxes and interest against Berkshire in 1989 and 1990. A second lawsuit said the IRS wrongly assessed it nearly $7 million in 1991.
The two lawsuits were combined for trial.