Related Party Transactions

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transactions

Related Party Transactions

The companies identified as affiliates of BNSF include Berkshire and its subsidiaries. For the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company declared and paid cash distributions of $1.1 billion and $3.6 billion to Berkshire, respectively. During the nine-month period ended September 30, 2023, the Company made tax payments of $961 million and received no tax refunds from Berkshire. During the nine-month period ended September 30, 2022, the Company made tax payments of $1.2 billion and received less than $1 million of tax refunds from Berkshire. As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company had a tax receivable from Berkshire of $104 million and a tax payable to Berkshire of $112 million, respectively.

North American railroads pay TTX Company (TTX) car hire to use TTX’s freight equipment to serve their customers. BNSF owns 17.4 percent of TTX while other North American railroads own the remaining interest. As the Company possesses the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, over the operating and financial policies of TTX, BNSF applies the equity method of accounting to its investment. The investment in TTX is recorded in other assets in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, and equity income or losses are recorded in materials and other in the Consolidated Statements of Income. The Company’s investment in TTX was $837 million and $807 million as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively. The Company incurred car hire expenditures with TTX of $92 million and $106 million for the three-months and $277 million and $311 million for the nine-months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.