The Coca-Cola Company announced on Friday that it will pay the Internal Revenue Service $6 billion in back taxes and interest as it appeals a 17-year-old ruling from a federal tax court.
The massive beverage corporation based in Atlanta declared that it will keep fighting and that it is confident in winning the court battle about taxes and interest that the IRS claims the business owes from 2007 to 2009.
“The business is excited about the chance to start the appeal process and will pay the agreed-upon liability and interest as part of that process,” the statement read.
Judge Albert Lauber of the U.S. Tax Court concluded his consideration of the matter on Friday with a two-sentence ruling and order.
Shortly after the business claimed to have been informed by the IRS that it owed $3.3 billion extra in federal taxes and interest for those three years, the disagreement reached court in December 2015.
Laptops 1000In a statement released on Friday, Coca-Cola claimed that the IRS had altered how it allowed the firm to determine its U.S. income from profits from international licensees and affiliates, which amounted to more than $9 billion.
Coca-Cola stated that it had been using the same formula to determine its taxable U.S. income from foreign affiliates for almost 30 years in a 2015 Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The firm stated that it believes the IRS and Lauber “misinterpreted and misapplied the applicable regulations in reallocating income earned by the company’s foreign licensees” in a quarterly report filed with the SEC on Monday and contained advice for investors.
If Coca-Cola prevails in its appeal, the publicly traded firm stated that “some or all of (the $6 billion), plus accrued interest, would be refunded.”
It has ninety days to submit the appeal paperwork.
Last week, following the announcement of a better-than-expected second quarter driven by product price hikes, the business increased its sales outlook for the entire year.
