More KPMGers indicted for shelters
The government added 10 defendants to its indictment in the KPMG LLP tax shelter investigation, including the Big Four accounting firm's former chief financial officer, bringing the number of people charged in the case to 19.
A New York federal grand jury charged each of the 19 defendants with at least 39 counts of tax evasion and a single count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The grand jury also charged three of the defendants with obstructing government investigations, and one with evading his personal income taxes.
Seventeen of the 19 defendants are former KPMG tax professionals, including newly added defendant Richard Rosenthal, 49, a former chief financial officer for the firm.
In August, KPMG agreed to pay $456 million to avoid prosecution over its sale of abusive tax shelters.
DiPiazza reappointed at PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr. has been reappointed to a second four-year term as chief executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers' global organization. His new term will begin Jan. 1. DiPiazza, 54, has been PwC's global chief executive since 2002. He previously had served as chairman and senior partner of PwC-U.S. Prior to that position, he had been Americas leader of PwC's tax practice, and had served on the Leadership Team and Board of Partners of PwC-U.S.
DiPiazza also announced several new global leadership appointments, which will take effect on Dec. 1. Those include:
* Gene Donnelly, who was named global managing partner for advisory and tax;
* Michael Gagnon, who was named global managing partner for risk and quality; and,
* Paul Boorman, who was named global managing partner for markets and operations.
AICPA releases tax reform report
The American Institute of CPAs has released a nonpartisan tax reform report titled, "Understanding Tax Reform: A Guide to 21st Century Alternatives." The report is meant as an overview to understanding major issues in the debate over making changes to the country's tax system.
"Tax reform is much tougher to accomplish than it is to envision," said AICPA president and chief executive Barry Melancon, in a statement. "However, the CPA profession has an unmatched understanding and knowledge of tax reform issues. It also will explain some of the most onerous problems for taxpayers that will occur during what we believe will be a very difficult transition from one system to the next."
In December 1995, the AICPA issued an analysis of the debate surrounding flat taxes and consumption taxes. The latest report updates some of that information and puts it in a modern context, while providing coverage of recent developments in the debate - including calls for a hybrid approach to reform, creating a system with both an income and a consumption tax or significant elements of each.
The AICPA said that its objective is to provide policy-makers, its members and other interested individuals with a clear understanding of the issues and alternatives involved in federal tax reform, and to foster informed discussion by providing unbiased information and analysis. The report was released just weeks before a panel assembled by the Bush administration was due to release its own tax reform report on Nov. 1, which was expected to propose major changes in the current system.
The AICPA report highlights 10 policy objectives that it recommends that any tax reform proposal be measured against. Those objectives include simplicity, fairness, economic growth and efficiency, neutrality, transparency, minimizing noncompliance, cost-effective collection, impact on government revenues, certainty, and payment convenience.
The full report is available at www.aicpa.org/taxreform.
