ENRON, the bankrupt energy company, is trying to claim back tens of millions of dollars in taxes from America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the ground that it paid too much during the years when it fraudulently overstated revenues and profits.

The audacious move is also being considered by other companies embroiled in accounting scandals, including WorldCom — now called MCI — Qwest Communications and HealthSouth.

All the companies are believed to have paid appropriate amounts of tax on the revenues and profits they reported, even though these were false.

The companies are arguing that the frauds that inflated their revenues were the result of the actions of individuals who worked for them and not the fault of the companies or their shareholders.

They are claiming that the extra tax paid is therefore another burden that shareholders, bondholders and employee pension funds had to bear and that the money should be returned to compensate them.

The IRS declined to comment on the requests for tax refunds but sources close to the service confirmed that a basic tenet of US tax law is that every company or individual who pays too much tax is entitled to a rebate.

WorldCom has so far restated about $11 billion (£6.8 billion) of earnings, Enron $586 million and HealthSouth some $2.5 billion. Between them, tax experts told The Times, they could claim back more than $1.5 billion, if the IRS accepted their claims.

Bill Frenzel, a member of the Congressional Tax Committee from 1970 to 1990, who worked with Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Carter on tax policy, said that it might take many years before the companies succeeded in their claims.

“Is that what we call balls of brass or what?” he said. “These companies really have some chutzpah.”

He added that the companies must first present proper accounts for the periods in question which, at least for Enron and WorldCom, could be a difficult task.

A-list companies in the queue

Enron made accounting irregularities fashionable. If the bankrupt energy trader gets a tax refund, then it will be joined by a queue of American companies that have admitted presenting inaccurate results. Many are on corporate America’s A-list. Last year Xerox, the photocopier maker, said it had overstated profits by $1.4 billion (£870 million); media group AOL Time Warner admitted inflating earnings by $97 million.

Halliburton, the engineering firm now under investigation for a similar offence, could join them.