- On May 10, the IRS levied $44B in 45 distinct claims, however reduced the claim to $24B.
- FTX said that the $24 billion claim was unfounded and not amenable to an appraisal.
The defunct cryptocurrency exchange claims that any “meaningful recovery” intended for FTX victims will be swallowed up by the U.S Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) planned $24 billion tax bill.
Since May, the US tax authorities have been attempting to collect past due taxes from the defunct cryptocurrency exchange and its sibling company, Alameda Research. On May 10, the IRS levied $44 billion in 45 distinct claims against FTX and its affiliates; however, the amount has since been reduced to $24 billion.
Validity of the Claim
However, FTX said in a document filed on December 10th in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that the allegations made by the IRS were without merit and would also harm the monies that were supposed to be used to repay impacted FTX subscribers. FTX said that the $24 billion claim was unfounded and not amenable to an appraisal.
FTX’s lawyers stated:
“There is simply no basis to support the IRS’s meritless claims that the Debtors owe tax in an amount that is orders of magnitude greater than any income the Debtors ever earned. The IRS’s reliance on its own processes only serves to delay distributions to those truly injured.”
Nonetheless, the IRS has not yet finished its audit, which may take another eight months as stated in the filing. It is anticipated that on December 12th, the United States government and FTX will engage in a legal dispute on the validity of the claim.
Around $3.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency is among the approximately $7 billion in assets that FTX’s administrators have recovered so far.
