IRS Trouble Threatens Bears Owners

The Halas family, owners of the Chicago Bears, could lose the football team under a federal tax assessment that might surpass $50 million, according to a report published Wednesday.

The Internal Revenue Service contends that the Halas family owes about $43.5 million in gift and inheritance taxes. With penalties and interest, the tax bill could increase to more than $50 million, a sum the family could pay only by selling the team, a report in the sports daily The National said.

Virginia Halas McCaskey, daughter of Bears founder George Halas, and Michael McCaskey, Halas’ grandson and president of the team, have filed petitions in U.S. Tax Court in Washington challenging the assessments, The National reported.

The family is also asking permission to pay any taxes the court rules it owes in 10 annual installments, a request the IRS had already refused.

A trial was scheduled for May 15 before U.S. Tax Court Judge Lapsley W. Hamblen Jr., the report said.

The dispute stems from a series of moves begun in December, 1981, by George Halas aimed at passing on the franchise to his 13 grandchildren while avoiding heavy taxation, the report said.

The IRS contends that a 1981 reorganization of the team placed an artificially low value on the 49.35% of the team’s stock then held in the name of the senior Halas, who died Oct. 31, 1983.