Paul Reddam’s KPMG Tax Shelter Stunk In More Ways Than One
Tanina Rostain and Milton Regan in Confidence Games – Lawyers, Accountants, and the Tax Shelter Industry explained the ugly chapter in tax history that this deal is a small part of. The key to these transactions succeeding was the IRS never finding them. And the IRS probably would not have found most of them if KPMG and other firms had not been forced to turn over lists. Congress has been steadily eroding IRS capacity.
Personal Goodwill Avoids Corporate Tax Exposure
The impending suspension would cause customers to reevaluate whether to trust Bross Trucking and continue to do business with it. Indeed, Mr. Bross expressed his concern to his attorney that Bross Trucking might not be able to perform necessary functions as a result of the suspension. Mr. Bross’s solution was to find or create another business to take over the trucking needs for the Bross family businesses. This is the antithesis of goodwill: Bross Trucking could not expect continued patronage because its customers did not trust it and did not want to continue doing business with it.
Follow Me
Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.