What's the size of a long? That might have something to do with his incredible fortune and the IRS computers not being able to handle it.
The maximum value of a 4-byte value is 4.2 billion, which is probably what they're using if they're having this problem. And Joe is incorrect, a long (in C) is 4 bytes. I'm not aware of any system where it's not 4 bytes. A short is 2 bytes, a long is 4 bytes, and an int is dependant on the system it's running on.
So I'm wondering how they handled Rockafellar's taxes?(the richest man ever to live, worth ~200 billion)
I believe (and I could be wrong) that that has been converted (with inflation and stuff). He wasn't actually worth 200 billion, he was worth the equivalent of 200billion at his time.
Also, he died in like 1935ish, which was before computers were invented. So I doubt that they had problems with how the computers calculated his tax.