TAARS® Attorneys Publish BNA Tax Management Memorandum Analyzing Milbank's Victory in Coca-Cola Company v. US
NEW YORK, July 12, 2010 – Members of Milbank's Tax Account Analysis and Recovery Services ("TAARS®") team have published a BNA Tax Management Memorandum, "Coca-Cola Company v. US: 6411 versus 6611 and Other Adventures of Deficiency And Statutory Interest," 51 Tax Management Memorandum 243 (July 19, 2010). The Memorandum supplements the authors’ presentation to the BNA Tax Management Advisory Board in April 2010. See TAARS® Attorneys to Analyze Milbank’s Court Win Awarding Coca-Cola Additional Interest on IRS Tax Accounts. A specialized tax service pioneered by Milbank, TAARS® identifies errors by the Internal Revenue Service and state revenue authorities (principally involving determinations of interest and penalties) and recovers for clients overcharged or underrefunded amounts.
Authored by Milbank attorneys Michael Grace, Joe Persinger, and Gil Polt, the Memorandum analyzes the decision of the United States Court of Federal Claims granting the Coca-Cola Company summary judgment and directing the IRS to pay the Company more than $2.5 million of interest on overpaid federal income tax. Coca-Cola had carried back a net operating loss, generating an overpayment of tax for a prior taxable year. The IRS issued Coca-Cola a tentative refund of the overpayment within 45 days of the Company’s claiming it, excusing the IRS by statute from paying interest on it. The IRS, however, then recaptured most of the refund and demanded that Coca-Cola repay it. Another court (the United States Tax Court) then ruled that the IRS had erred in recapturing the refund and must restore it to Coca-Cola. Milbank convinced the Court of Federal Claims that the IRS’ originally paying Coca-Cola the refund within 45 days did not excuse the IRS from later having to pay the Company interest on the overpayment following the subsequent events.
The Memorandum also addresses other issues that recur in Milbank's TAARS® practice. These issues include statutes of limitation within which to claim interest; the IRS’ right to offset an overpayment against underpayments of tax and certain other liabilities of a taxpayer; and interest netting (often called global interest netting) with respect to overlapping underpayments and overpayments of tax.
You may read the Memorandum by clicking here. Contact information for Michael, Joe, Gil, and other members of Milbank's TAARS® team appears at www.milbank.com -- Practice Areas: Tax: Milbank TAARS® (Tax Account Analysis and Recovery Services).