up to 2021 — before lawmakers adopted the Inflation Reduction Act — and found 78 firms that year would have faced $31.8 billion in liabilities. That included Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate owned by Warren Buffett, which may have owed $8.3 billion in taxes under the law. Amazon would have faced a roughly $2.7 billion bill, Ford Motor Co. would have owed $1.8 billion and AT&T might have had to pay $1.5 billion, according to the analysis, released last September.
At least one firm, Berkshire Hathaway, later reported it “currently [does] not expect that compliance with the provisions of the 2022 act will have a material impact” on its finances, according to its most recent earnings report. The company did not respond to a request for comment.For the Treasury Department, the fiscal stakes are high, since Democrats fashioned the tax as a way to ensure the Inflation Reduction Act reduces the deficit.
In comments filed with the agency this spring, a wide array of corporate lobbyists — including ITI, the Business Roundtable and the Association for Competitive Taxation , which represents companies like Google, Home Depot and Walmart — pushed for permissive rules that mirror many of the features of the current tax system.
Representatives for major private-equity firms, including Blackstone and the Carlyle Group, similarly have blitzed lawmakers attempting to ensure they are not taxed based on the gains and losses of assets they have not sold, according to Democratic aides.