DUBLIN: Businessman JP McManus has taken a legal action in the United States to try to recover $5.2 million (€4.7 million) in taxes which he claims should not have been withheld from $17.4 million in US gambling winnings in 2012.
Mr McManus filed the proceedings with the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington through lawyers in Texas, claiming the money from his winnings had been “erroneously withheld” by a withholding agent to cover any potential US federal income tax liability.
Court records show the Limerick businessman has tried to recover the money from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax authority.
Mr McManus, well known for his life-time interest in bloodstock, racing and gambling, maintains that the money is exempt from American taxes under the 1997 double-taxation agreement between the US and Ireland.
In a filing submitted with the Washington court on Monday, Mr McManus’s lawyers say that he is a citizen and resident of Ireland and that in 2012 he earned income outside of Ireland that was “generally not subject to Ireland’s provincial geographic income tax structure”.
His Houston-based lawyers told the court he filed a tax return with the IRS for the 2012 tax year outlining the $17.4 million in US gambling winnings, the $5.2 million withheld in tax on those winnings and the reasons why he was entitled for that entire amount to be refunded.
