Fortune 500 companies used auditors for tax shelters, study finds

[Judi Lynn]

Fortune 500 companies used auditors for tax shelters, study finds
February 24, 2005, 8:27 PM


WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 60 of the nation's 500 largest corporations got tax shelter services between 1998 and 2003 from accounting firms hired to independently audit the companies' financial statements, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday.

The relationship raises questions about possible conflicts of interest and should spur changes to ensure the independence of financial auditors, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

"If we are going to restore public confidence in the financial statements of our public companies, auditors of those companies can't be selling them abusive tax shelters that distort and misrepresent the companies' tax liabilities and income," said Levin, who requested the study.

The IRS and congressional committees have been investigating the role accounting firms played in the proliferation of corporate tax shelters in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
(snip/...)

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw112191_20050224.htm

[Mokito]

1. Study into the Fortune 500 points out the obvious, study finds.

n/t

[TexasLawyer]

2. and guess who has to pick up the slack

for the taxes that go unpaid by the corporations? Primarily, the middle class, and their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc...

This assumes, of course, that there even IS a U.S. middle class that survives this generation.