The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has filed tax claims worth $44 billion against bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its affiliated entities.
according to the most recent bankruptcy sawdustThe IRS has filed a total of 45 claims against FTX companies related to unpaid taxes, which could be a major concern for FTX creditors, given that the agency is claiming priority over creditors in the bankruptcy case.
The largest claims include a pair of claims of $20.4 billion and $7.9 billion aimed at FTX affiliate Alameda Research related to unpaid partnership taxes.
Two other claims totaling $9.5 billion have been filed against Alameda Research Holdings Inc.
The IRS filed claims under “administrative priority,” which enables the claims of unsecured creditors to be eliminated during bankruptcy proceedings.
Although Alameda Research was based in Hong Kong, its key officers and employees, such as Sam Bankman-Fried and Carolyn Ellison, are US citizens.
The US differs from most other countries in that it practices a taxation-by-citizenship system, meaning that United States citizens are required to pay taxes on their income earned anywhere in the world, regardless of their residence. No matter the location or how long they’ve been there. spend each year in the United States.
In the case of partnership entities such as Alameda Research, taxes are not paid at the partnership level. Instead, they are passed through to the partners and are subject to taxation at the individual level.
Twitter user @MrPurple_DJ, who describes himself as a restructuring expert, said, “The tax man gets paid first in BK, which is why it’s filed under an admin priority status.”
The user said that claims are typically inflated in bankruptcy cases but that they are “less settled.”
One reason for the absurdly high claims is that “sometimes claims are filed against each individual debtor entity for a single claim (in this case there are 130 of them) but claims are settled 2x-130x for the same underlying claim.” Can’t be done.”
“This has been done procedurally to ensure that claims are not disallowed for filing against the wrong entity.”
Latest Developments in the FTX Saga
In the latest development in the FTX saga, disgraced founder of the exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried Asked A New York federal judge to dismiss most of the criminal charges brought against him by federal prosecutors.
In a filing with the Southern District of New York federal court earlier this week, lawyers for Bankman-Fried argued that many of the charges against her were “dramatized” and “turned civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes.”
In addition, efforts around an FTX relaunch have gathered some traction as the platform succeeded To recover over $7.3 billion in cash and liquid crypto assets.
As informed ofThe effort to revive FTX has also drawn interest from Tribe Capital, a venture firm that is seeking to lead a $250 million fundraising campaign for the new platform.