IRS Tax on Cubs’ Team Sale Receives Cold Reception at 7th Cir.

A Seventh Circuit judge appeared skeptical during oral arguments Thursday about the IRS’s assertion that a portion of proceeds from Tribune Media Co.‘s sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team is taxable as a disguised sale.

Tribune challenged a $181.7 million deficiency notice from 2016 in US Tax Court that the IRS says resulted from how the company’s predecessor, in bankruptcy at the time, sought in 2009 to avoid taxes when selling the Cubs and Wrigley Field to its current owners, the Ricketts family. To complete the sale, Tribune formed a partnership with the family named Chicago Baseball Holdings ...