IRS lawyers defend $2B tax bill to Bill Davidson estate (Davidson former Detroit Pistons owner)
By Todd Spangler
Detroit Free Press Washington Staff
August 15, 2013
IRS lawyers are defending a tax bill of more than $2 billion sent to the estate of the late William Davidson, reiterating claims that the former Pistons owner and industrialist didn’t properly account for huge gifts to family members and the value of stocks put in trust for his heirs.
In a 46-page filing made public in U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, lawyers for the Internal Revenue Service answered the estate representatives’ arguments filed in June saying the tax bill — $2.8 billion in all — was wildly inflated and that, despite a huge IRS notice of deficiency, the estate didn’t owe anything more.
The IRS denied that Davidson reported or properly valued all gifts and transfers and asked that the relief sought by the estate — namely that the tax bill be dropped — “be denied and that respondent’s determination, as set forth in the notice of deficiency, be in all respects applied.”
It could set up one of the largest such estate tax fights in U.S. history. No one keeps statistics on the size of tax petitions, but when the Free Press first broke news of the filing two months ago, experts couldn’t think of a recent one with as much money at stake.
full: http://www.freep.com/article/20130815/NEWS06/308150025/william-davidson-estate-tax-dispute-internal-revenue-service