IRS Reportedly Seeks $250 Million From Hunts

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking more than $250 million from the Hunt family of Dallas and part of its Texas-based business empire, Cox News Service said Sunday, quoting U.S. Tax Court documents.

In addition to claims of at least $200 million against individual members of the family, which is believed to be one of the richest in the nation, the government says the family-owned Placid Oil Co. of Dallas owes nearly $55 million in taxes.

The Hunts--whose business interests include worldwide investments ranging from oil wells to artworks--are contesting the IRS claims, Cox reported from its Washington bureau.

Most of the tax disputes reportedly involve the 1980 tax year.

The court documents indicate that the IRS claims against family members involve tens of millions of dollars transferred by billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt and his wife, Caroline, to their children.

The IRS considers the 1980 transfers taxable gifts, but the Hunts contend in papers filed in tax court here that the transfers were business loans that “became worthless” and were technically uncollectible.

Hunt family spokesman Tom Whitaker said he did not know what sort of business ventures were financed by the loans.

An IRS “notice of deficiency” letter sent to Bunker and Caroline Hunt last October disallowed the use of the bad loans as a $147.6-million short-term capital loss on the Hunts’ tax return.

Separate notices were sent to other Hunt family members, Cox reported.

In those notices, the IRS seeks nearly $12 million from the Hunts’ son Houston B. Hunt of Dallas and more than $36 million from daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas J. Curnes, who live in Calgary, Alberta.

The IRS claims back taxes of more than $53 million from the Hunts’ daughter Mary and her husband, Albert D. Huddleston, of Dallas.

The agency also sent notices last year seeking more than $55 million from Placid Oil Co. and its subsidiaries.

One notice cites allegedly improper deductions and calculations during the 1976 through 1979 tax years and seeks nearly $14 million.

A notice for the 1980 tax year seeks about $41 million and alleges the firm failed to report more than $82.5 million in “primary preference income” from Placid Investment Co., a Texas limited partnership formed in the spring of 1980.

A Securities and Exchange Commission report released several years ago put Bunker Hunt’s personal holdings at about $2.9 billion in April, 1980. His debts and other obligations were listed at about $680 million.

The Hunt brothers are sons of the late H. L. Hunt, who began as a wildcat oil driller. The elder Hunt set up a series of trusts in 1935 to provide income for his six children.