OTHER NEWS - Feb. 10, 1994

IRS Offers Chance to Settle Disputed Claims: The Internal Revenue Service announced that it is offering about 1,500 taxpayers--mostly large corporations--a chance to settle billions of dollars worth of disputed tax claims involving write-offs for intangible assets such as mailing lists and computer software. The issue is of enormous importance to businesses that have bought other businesses. Since the mid-1980s, the IRS has disallowed more than $14.5 billion in claims by these businesses, touching off a torrent of litigation, a Supreme Court decision against the IRS and a change in the law by Congress last year.