FTX Reports IRS Demand for $24 Billion in Unpaid Taxes, Delays Restoration of User Funds

FTX's lawyers submitted a new filing to the Delaware bankruptcy court on Sunday, arguing that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should validate its claims against FTX and demonstrate how it estimates the alleged overdue taxes owed. This comes as the latest development in the months-long dispute between the IRS and FTX's bankruptcy estate, focusing on the disputed amount of unpaid taxes owed by the bankrupt exchange and its affiliated entities.

While FTX contends that it doesn't owe anything to the IRS, the tax agency is seeking a tax claim of up to $24 billion, more than three times the amount currently available in the estate to attempt to compensate creditors' losses.

In its brief three-year existence, FTX has never distributed dividends or profits and has “never earned anything close to the amount that the IRS claims – $24 billion,” the lawyers wrote. Instead, FTX has suffered significant losses of funds, they added.

The lawyers argue in the filing, “The IRS's only recourse is to take money from the victims. Relying on its own procedures without any basis for a tax claim against the debtor will only delay distributions to the truly injured parties.”