The IRS Hits Symantec with a $1 Billion Tax Bill 337
GnoWay writes "Macworld is reporting that the IRS has charged Symantec Corporation with about a 900 million dollar tax bill due to the charge that Symantec and Veritas (purchased by Symantec last year) under-reported the value of intellectual property which they had transferred to their two Irish subsidiaries. Another $100 million is connected to Symantec's 2003 and 2004 reports."
Values of Non-Physical Objects (Score:5, Interesting)
No (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing New About Tax Evasion& Creative Accoun (Score:0, Interesting)
Show me an honest businessman, and I will show you a figment of your imagination.
The tax laws (as I understand them) are mainly for the middle class and lower classes. The rich and the corporations exploit a dizzying array of loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Most Americans do not earn enough money to qualify for these loopholes. Without the loopholes, the IRS tax guide would have exactly 3 pages: the front page, the tax formula, and the back page. The current IRS tax guide, packed with hundreds of detailed loopholes, requires more than 1000 pages.
The biggest unstated truth in the corridors of Congress is that 33% is the highest enforceable tax rate in America. Once the tax rate exceeds 33%, the rich move their money into offshore accounts that answer to no one. That goes double for George Soros.
Re:Valueing intellectual property? (Score:3, Interesting)
For online music, the success of the 99 cents per song seems to indicate that yes, a compressed, digital song with DRM is worth about 99 cents. Was Skype worth $4 billion? Yes, because someone was willing to buy it for that much after the founders asked for it. Is a 20oz Coke in a vending machine worth $1.25? Sure!
What's the trouble?
Re:Valuing intellectual property? (Score:1, Interesting)
So, my initial irritation with the IRS deciding to extort a huge chunk of money is offset by knowing that a corporation that lives by the sword is getting cut by it too.
Don't Be So Certain... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Learn from this... (Score:1, Interesting)
They do this for their bosses, to prove that they were dealing with the employees properly.
They have gone through this bullshit themselves, probably a well paid management consultant star brainwashed them. Corporate managers love these fabulous "corporate tales". Some truly believe that if the story is right and the mantra is being told often enough, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Strangely enough, Communist leaders used to love the same method - some still wondering what the hell has just happened with the Berlin Wall and why.
Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton? (Score:2, Interesting)
My guess is it's something like this:
Symantec's tax people get audited by the IRS. Auditors flood Symantec with records requests from the last several years then go do nothing. for a while 'till the statue of limitations dedline looms. Auditors tell Symantec that they will slam them hard unless they sign a statute of limitations extention and claim that Syamantec isn't giving them records fast enough.
Symantec gives in a few times on signing the statute extentions a few times while Auditors keep requesting irrelevent records that they had already been sent but lost. Symantec finally gets tired of screwing with the peon auditors and refuses to sign another statute extention which suprises auditor so they hastily put together a shody justification for a huge $900M assesment.
Next step probibly has the assesment getting reduced to something reasonable which won't make any headlines and won't be a slashdot article.
Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nothing New About Tax Evasion& Creative Acc (Score:3, Interesting)
Taxing property is equally flawed. Often, property tax assessment can be inflated by 10-20% than what one would get on the open market. I remember when Washington State used to chare (several years ago) a registration fee based on the value of your car. The BLUEBOOK value. They often assessed unreasonable values based on the best condition for that car, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. They tried to get my friend had to pay a $400+ yearly registration fee because they value his 10 y.o. Mercedes at $15,000+. It has 180K miles on it and he payed $2300 for it in another state before he moved.
Property tax is also unfair because it doesn't assess what you can afford. Older couples may want to keep their big house but can't afford to pay the property tax on it because they don't have the jobs that bought in the money precisely because they are retired. California has (had?) the fairest system where property was taxed at 1% on the original buying price. If people decided to reap the profit on property going sky high, the government would also benefit from the NEW owners who knew what they were getting into, but people wouldn't be forced from their homes simply because suddenly the land became valuable.
Sales tax would be fairest. With rebates/allowments/coupons on clothing/food/necessities for the poor/lower income people. Yes, some loopholes but that is unavoidable in a society that doesn't want to present only faceless rules and have some humanity toward others.
Re:taxing IP (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know about that. I think all the hate come from the home security products. Ghost is still my favorite utility for Windows. Backup Exec doesn't suck too much - its new disk stuff is clever. The old-school Veritas disk management products are the same as ever - like them or hate them, they haven't chnaged in a long time. I use their corproate SAV at work and haven't had a problem with it since about 5 years ago - it doesn't try to consume my whole computer the way the personal NAV does.
What Symantec products does everyone hate so much - is it just the home security stuff?
Re:taxing IP (Score:3, Interesting)