[Texgreen] Surprise: giant corporations win by tax cheating

[Roger Baker]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/business/12tax.html>

Agents Say Fast Audits Hurt I.R.S.

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: January 12, 2007

Top officials at the Internal Revenue Service are pushing agents to =20
prematurely close audits of big companies with agreements to have =20
them pay only a fraction of the additional taxes that could be =20
collected, according to dozens of I.R.S. employees who say that the =20
policy is costing the government billions of dollars a year.

=93It=92s catch and release,=94 said Douglas R. Johnson, an I.R.S. =
auditor =20
in Colorado for three decades who said he grew so frustrated at how =20
large corporations were allowed to pay far less than what he thought =20
they owed that he transferred to the agency=92s small-business division.

With one exception, other working agents would talk about the issue =20
only on condition they not be identified because they feared being =20
fired. They said a policy intended to avoid delays in auditing =20
corporations was being pushed so rigidly that it prevented them from =20
pursuing numerous examples of questionable corporate tax deductions...=