Yahoo! owes! us! one! billion! dollars! in! back! taxes! say! US! govt! beancounters! Yahoo! is still causing problems beyond the grave. The former tech giant, sold in 2017 to Verizon, branched off as separate company Altaba, and then dissolved in 2019, is still sitting on $13bn in cash. And, according to the US tax authorities, $1bn of that is owed to Uncle Sam. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sued …
"According to the IRS, the company still has $13bn in assets, $12.9bn of it in cash or cash equivalents. After it officially dissolved, the IRS sent the company a tax bill for $12.7bn"
Well, that's very generous of the IRS to leave Altaba a couple hundred million in walking around money. Also very convenient that the IRS targeted almost exactly the amount that Altaba had in the bank. I'd fight that bill, too (although I'm not worth any number of billions, so I'd probably lose).
"Also very convenient that the IRS targeted almost exactly the amount that Altaba had in the bank."
My guess is it's the other way round. The IRS said that we think you owe us $12.7bn, so don't go giving it away before the bill arrives. So they were perfectly able to disburse the rest, but the remainder couldn't be disbursed until the final bill had been resolved.
My first thought on reading the headline was 'Yahoo has income?'
Reading further it becomes clear that this was just a normal high faluting divestment scam which the IRS wants a piece of.
Digging into this, after selling it's core business to Verizon, it changed its stock name to Altaba and became essentially a holding company for Yahoo's remaining shares of Alibaba. CNN reported in 2017 that sales of the Alibaba shares would result in a massive tax bill and they were right.
It’s the same... Rich people (say Lewis Hamilton) and lawyered up corporations (Apple, Altaba, Thames Water etc) can avoid, dodge or ultimately barter/negotiate a deal on their affairs - avoiding prosecution.
Small people get hammered and fleeced for the full amount. I’d love to be able to offer HMRC 50p on the pound ‘deal’ against my self-assessment child benefit clawback dues.
Note Vodafone (and shareholders as was more complex) had a similar massive windfall from it’s disposal of a near half stake in Verizon. Was that any messier as appropriate context El Reg journo’s.
Toys R Us and all the other companies dumped with debt and sucked dry of cash from selling of assets. Rinse and repeat.
I'd say one is born every minute. But to be honest, who of us don't occasionally spend too much on buying something we like, like that kebab or beer, and sell off something for too little, like that car we just want to get rid off to avoid paying all the upkeep for.
"Altaba offered $1.5bn"
then some time later -
"As such, it asks the court in Delaware to “render judgment in favor of the US and against Altaba for the 2016 through 2019 income tax liabilities set forth above, in the amount of $1,091,764,855.”"
So Delaware were offered $1.5bn (of the $2.88bn they wanted at that point) and after years of expensive lawyers they've managed to bargain it down to only asking for just over $1bn. I wish my ex-wife's lawyers were that good
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