IRS Tells Intel of Tax Adjustment - This is a good illustration of why IRS has auditors on full time year-round duty checking the books of multi-billion dollar corporations, and leave the smaller corporations alone. This one little proposed adjustment of $600 million in tax for two years makes all of that auditor time worth while for the Feds.

For those who have never been audited by IRS, this kind of public announcement gives the impression that taxpayers' private tax and financial data are subject to everyone's perusal. That is not true. Audits are very private and confidential between the IRS, the taxpayer and the taxpayer's representative. The reason Intel made this announcement was not to abide by IRS rules, but to comply with SEC requirements to make everyone in the investing public aware of anything that could affect the corporation's bottom line. This is only required for publicly traded corporations. Closely held corporations can keep their IRS dealings as secret as can private individuals.

Banks Moved Billions to Shelter Income From State Taxes - The insinuation here is that these banks are evil and unpatriotic because they set things up so as to minimize their taxes. The truth of the matter is that the officers of corporations have a very explicit legal fiduciary responsibility to do whatever it takes to legally maximize the return to the owners of the business. To do otherwise would be an actionable dereliction of duty. To not use every legal loophole and strategy to reduce the tax burden would be an example of incompetence.
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 8/07/2003 11:46:00 AM Send this post: