Bailed-out AIG wants $30.2 million in tax interest

[July 07, 2012]  (AP) -- American International Group, the insurance giant saved by a massive federal bailout, wants some tax money back -- from 1991.

AIG is suing in Federal Claims Court in Washington for $30.2 million. It says that's how much interest is owed from an overpayment 21 years ago.

AIG said it underpaid taxes for 1997, 1998, and 1999. But it said the government owes it interest for an overpayment in 1991. It said the two claims work out to $30.2 million in the company's favor.

New York-based AIG said it filed the lawsuit on Thursday because the statute of limitations on its claims was about to run out. The statute of limitations runs for six years on the amounts, which AIG said were determined in July and August 2006.

The Internal Revenue Service is run by the Treasury Department, which also owns about 60 percent of AIG common stock, which it has been selling in pieces.

AIG's $182.5 billion bailout was the largest of the financial crisis.

Last month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said the insurer had completed repaying loans it made as part of the bailout.

AIG shares fell 40 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close at $31.57. The stock, which dropped to single digits during the financial crisis, has traded between $19.18 and $35.05 in the past 52 weeks.

[Associated Press]

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