US tax service sues KPMG and BDO
The US Justice Department, on behalf of the country's Internal Revenue Service, has filed suit against the US member firms of KPMG and BDO International.
It says the accounting firms failed to provide the government with key tax shelter information.
The suits, filed on 9 July, request KPMG LLP to disclose information about all tax shelters the firm has marketed since 1998 and for BDO Seidman to search back to 1995.
The information, among other things, would disclose names of investors.
‘Certain tax-shelter transactions are devised to exploit the complexity of the tax law to claim benefits Congress never intended,’ Eileen J. O’Connor, assistant attorney general for the department’s tax division said in a justice department release.
IRS commissioner Charles O. Rossotti added that ‘the US tax system is based on the principle of responsible tax advice by tax professionals. It is not a game of hide and seek with the IRS.’