Michael Jackson photographed on Jan. 27, 1989.
The executors of the estate say the decision is "a huge, unambiguous victory for Michael Jackson’s children."
More than four years after going head-to-head with the IRS in U.S. Tax Court, Michael Jackson's estate has emerged largely victorious — with a federal judge finding the artist's worth at the time of his death to be much closer to its estimate than the government's and declining to issue any penalties.
The dispute centered on how much Jackson's image and likeness were worth when he died in 2009, which would determine how much in taxes the estate would owe the IRS. It also includes the worth of Jackson's interest in New Horizon Trust II, which included his stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and New Horizon Trust III, which included Mijac Music, a publishing catalog that owned the copyrights to compositions Jackson wrote or co-wrote and works by other songwriters. (The estate and IRS generally agreed on the value of the other assets.)