Coca-Cola must pay the IRS $6 billion in back taxes

The Beverage giant from Atlanta said it will proceed to fight and was confident it could win the litigation over taxes and interest owed to the IRS for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

“The company looks forward to the opportunity to begin the appeal process and will pay the agreed liability and interest as part of that process,” it said in a press release. Coca-Cola spokesman Scott Leith declined further comment to The Associated Press.

U.S. Tax Court Judge Albert Lauber issued a two-sentence ruling Friday ordering him to finish his review of the case. The dispute got here to court in December 2015, shortly after the corporate notified the IRS that It owed $3.3 billion more in federal taxes and interest for those three years.

In its statement on Friday, Coca-Cola accused the IRS of fixing the way in which the corporate calculates its U.S. income tax, which affects profits of greater than $9 billion from foreign licensees and subsidiaries.

An IRS spokesman didn’t immediately reply to a phone message from AP in regards to the case on Friday.

In a 2015 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coca-Cola stated that the corporate has used the identical method to calculate its U.S. taxable income from foreign subsidiaries for nearly 30 years.

In an organization Quarterly report The company filed a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, which also included investor advice, saying it believes the IRS and Lauber “misinterpreted and misapplied applicable rules in reallocating the income of the company’s foreign licensees.”

The publicly traded company expects to “recover some or all of the $6 billion plus accrued interest” if Coca-Cola wins its appeal. The company has 90 days to file appeal documents.

Last week, the corporate raised its full-year revenue forecast after announcing stronger than expected second quarterfavored by product price increases.