The Coca-Cola Company Comments on Tax Court Decision

Friday, November 10th, 2023

On Nov. 8, the U.S. Tax Court issued a supplemental opinion in The Coca-Cola Company & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Coca-Cola Company disagrees with the actions of the IRS and the latest decision by the U.S. Tax Court.

While we disagree with the court’s interpretation of the facts and law in this case, we are pleased to move closer to a final resolution of the Tax Court case so that we can pursue an appeal, where we can assert our claims and vigorously defend the company’s position.

This includes our belief that it is unconstitutional to face retroactive tax liability based on the IRS’ use of a calculation methodology that was different from what was long agreed upon and approved in audits for more than a decade.

We do not expect the results in this recent supplemental decision to change the methodologies we have used to calculate the tax reserve we have taken or the potential aggregate incremental tax and interest liability we have disclosed related to the dispute with the IRS or our effective tax rate.