A tax dispute involving Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund firm whose co-chief executive officer is a prominent backer of President Donald Trump, is advancing to a new phase.
Members of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Appeals are scheduled to meet with lawyers for Renaissance in New York on Nov. 7, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The meeting kicks off a review by an independent branch of the tax agency and suggests a resolution may be years away.
Although the dollar amount at issue has never been made public, Senate investigators estimated that Renaissance employees may have pocketed about $6.8 billion through what a bipartisan panel in 2014 called an “abusive” tax shelter. Renaissance executives maintain the transactions at issue were within the law and weren’t driven by tax savings.
Underscoring the stakes for Renaissance is the legal team it has assembled at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. It includes B. John Williams, a former IRS chief counsel and tax court judge; Fred Goldberg, a former IRS commissioner; and Diane Ryan, the former chief of the agency’s appeals unit, according to the person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for Renaissance, based in East Setauket, New York, declined to comment.
Acting Commissioner
Robert Mercer, the firm’s co-chief executive officer, is a financial backer of the staunchly pro-Trump Breitbart News and a patron of Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s chairman and the president’s former chief strategist. Renaissance’s founder and chairman, James Simons, was one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest benefactors during the 2016 election.
The firm’s political ties have added to scrutiny of the case.
Trump named David Kautter to become acting IRS commissioner after the term of John Koskinen, an appointee of Barack Obama, expires Nov. 12. Kautter doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Rootstrikers, a group critical of the Trump administration, began a petition drive Friday opposing the Kautter appointment, calling it an “end run around the Senate” that “could lead to a massive payback for billionaire Trump donor Robert Mercer.”
Matthew Leas, a spokesmen for the IRS, said in an email that the agency is prohibited by law from discussing individual taxpayers or cases.