A Surprise in Tax Case on KPMG

A Surprise in Tax Case on KPMG - New York Times

米国ＫＰＭＧの元パートナーらが、不適切なタックスシェルターを販売していたとして訴えられている刑事裁判で、元パートナーの１人が容疑を認めたという記事。（事件自体はここでも何回か取り上げています。）

検察側の主張は、捜査の中心である４つのタックスシェルターで１１０億ドルのインチキな損失を計上し、２５億ドルの税金を回避したというものです。

Prosecutors have said that four bogus shelters at the heart of their investigation created $11 billion in fake losses that allowed wealthy individuals to avoid paying some $2.5 billion in taxes.

容疑を認めた元パートナーは、あぶないタックスシェルターの税務について、そうでないことを知りながら、当局の解釈に照らしても正当だというオピニオン・レターを１９９９年から２００４年にかけて書いていたそうです。

Mr. Rivkin, a certified public accountant by training, said that in 1999 and through May 2004 he and other unidentified people had signed letters blessing the tax aspects of aggressive shelters as "more likely than not" to be valid in the eyes of the I.R.S., when he and others knew that they were not.

この元パートナーは、彼が書いたオピニオンレターにより、少なくとも２０００万ドルの租税回避がなされたといっています。また、１９９９年と２０００年には、２億３５００万ドルの損失を計上した９件の税務申告に関与したことを認めています。

Mr. Rivkin said that his opinion letters allowed wealthy individuals to shelter from taxes income of at least $20 million "to keep the money for themselves instead of paying the taxes they owed." He admitted to preparing or causing to be prepared nine tax returns for clients who improperly claimed losses of $235 million in 1999 and 2000.

オピニオンレターが虚偽であることはわかっていたといっています。

"I knew that the losses should not have been claimed on the tax return," Mr. Rivkin told the judge. "I signed opinion letters knowing them to be false."

また、問題のあるタックスシェルターの販売に４つの銀行（うち３つはＫＰＭＧの監査クライアント）が関与していたようです。

In a document filed with the court yesterday, prosecutors said that four unnamed banks — three of them audit clients of KPMG — had worked with the accounting firm to make and sell questionable tax shelters.

そのほか、ＫＰＭＧ出身者が設立したタックスシェルター専門のPresidio Advisory Servicesという会社が、ＫＰＭＧの倍以上も報酬を稼いでいた（１億３４００万ドル）という事実も明らかになっています。

The document also disclosed that a tax shelter boutique, Presidio Advisory Services, which is now defunct, earned fees of $134 million selling shelters known as Blips over 1999 and 2000 — more than double the $53 million that KPMG earned. Presidio was founded by two former KPMG professionals, Robert Pfaff and John Larson, who are both among the defendants.