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An Irish gambler is demanding a $5.22 million tax refund from the IRS and to that we say “good luck”.
What if you’re an Irish bigwig who won $17.4 million gambling in the U.S., and the payor incorrectly sent $5.22 million to the Internal Revenue Service as withholding?
That’s the question posed by Ashley Ebeling of Forbes.com.
64-year-old John McManus is in that very situation. As one of Ireland’s richest men, McManus won the money in 2012 and filed a non-resident U.S. federal income tax return that noted the amount won with a refund expected based on an international tax treaty claim. To McManus’s surprise, he soon became the subject of an IRS tax audit.
While the IRS eventually approved his refund claim, the review process continues. McManus has now turned around and sued the IRS demanding these funds be given to him.
“It’s a shame we had to resort to this particular approach, but if the IRS stonewalls you, you have no resort but to take this action,” says his lawyer, Houston-based celebrity litigator Terry Giles. “The IRS knows what the law is; it’s really pretty straightforward and simple.”
Giles, incidentally, is the man who helped put together U.S. GOP Presidential candidate neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s campaign.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
