XPost: alt.politics.miserable-failure, alt.journalism.gay-press, alt.politics.greens
XPost: alt.dislocated.ass

On Friday, Coca-Cola Co. said that it may owe the IRS an extra
$3.3 billion in federal income taxes.

According to the company, the Internal Revenue Service found
after a five-year-long audit that the soft drink giant may owe
the federal government $3.3 billion along with interest for the
2007 – 2009 period. The federal agency didn’t mention any
penalties in the notice letter.

Coca-cola explained that the unpaid income taxes are linked to a
transfer pricing procedure. Corporations that have offices in
many parts of the world and do business there can relocate goods
and services from one location to another.

In a perfect world, the transfers should be done at equal prices
and costs, but in reality companies manipulate these costs to
lower profits in high-tax countries and shift them to low-tax
states to dodge hefty tax bills.

Companies’ favorite assets when trying to abuse transfer pricing
are those related to intangible property including copyright,
marketing and distribution know-how, licenses and so on. Unlike
a production plant, intangible property assets can be freely
transferred across the world without them having a fixed
physical location. As a result, pricing can be easily
manipulated for tax evasion purposes.

The IRS said that the beverage maker also abused transfer
pricing when it failed to report all oversea income gained from
intangible property. The company said that it used the same
transfer pricing procedures it had agreed on with the IRS in
1996. And that agreement still stands as long as the company
doesn’t change its transfer pricing policies which it didn’t.

The IRS also told Coca Cola that the issue reached the agency’s
Chief Counsel and may soonhit a federal court. But the company
said that it would rather discuss the matter with Chief Counsel
before engaging in a legal battle.

Nevertheless, Coca-Cola stated that the IRS’ request lacks any
basis and that it would use all administrative and judicial
means to settle the issue. As a first step, the company plans to
file a complaint with the U.S. Tax Court against the IRS’
resolution.

The company also announced that the current amount of debt plus
interest rates shouldn’t affect its financial performance. Coca
Cola disclosed that it has an emergency fund for such
situations, and the fund is “adequate” for now.

But if the IRS raises stakes, the assessed tax and interest
could affect its cash flow or financial position. Currently,
Cola Cola holds the forth position in the World’s Most Valuable
Brands list after Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

http://www.lighthousenewsdaily.com/coca-cola-owes-the-irs/1774/

CostCo food courts dumped Coke for Pepsi when Pepsi said they
supported dick suckers and Coke said, "No fag issues and no
comment".
 

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)