P.M. BRIEFING : IRS Offers Hunts Tax Compromise

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed settling Carolyn and Nelson Bunker Hunts’ back tax bill for about $200 million--less than one-third of the $700 million the government originally sought.

Grover Hartt III, attorney representing the IRS in the Hunts’ bankruptcy case, said Thursday he had proposed the $200-million settlement to his superiors in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harold Abramson gave attorneys for Hunt and his wife 30 days to hammer out details of the settlement with the IRS.

The agreement in principle is a breakthrough in the nearly year-old bankruptcy negotiations of Nelson Bunker Hunt, whose financial troubles stem in part from a scheme by Hunt and his brother William Herbert Hunt to control the silver market in 1979 and 1980.