Corporate transparency issues

Global Financial Integrity Honors Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with 2011 Annual Award for Exemplary Leadership

Senator to Accept Award Tonight at Gala Dinner in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) will tonight present Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with the organization’s 2011 annual Award for Exemplary Leadership in acknowledgement of his untiring efforts on behalf of financial integrity in the U.S. and abroad. Sen. Levin will accept the award this evening at a gala dinner hosted by GFI in his honor at The Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC.

“We are thrilled to honor Sen. Levin’s many distinguished contributions in pursuit of transparency and accountability in our financial system,” said GFI Director Raymond Baker. “For many years, Senator Levin has been at the forefront of both foreign and domestic anticorruption and tax justice efforts.”

“As chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Levin has played a pivotal role in exposing many of the biggest financial fraud schemes of the past decade. He led efforts to investigate offshore abuse in the collapse of Enron, exposed rampant money-laundering facilitation on behalf of foreign dictators at Riggs National Bank, and more recently, held hearings revealing how both UBS and LGT Bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade paying taxes to the IRS,” added Mr. Baker.

In the current Congress, GFI notes that Senator Levin has sponsored three pieces of legislation which would promote financial integrity. They are:

1. The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (S. 1346);
2. The Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S. 1483); and
3. The Equal Access to Tax Planning Act (S. 139).

Senator Levin is the third person to receive this honor from GFI. The award was first given in December 2009 to then-retiring New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. Eva Joly, chairperson of the European Parliament’s Development Committee, received the 2010 award.

Oracle's Africa dealings come under FBI scrutiny

We had the opportunity to report many times the company lack of transparency regarding Oracle tax haven operations, in capability to host many secret fund transfers towards swiss accounts.
CFDT Labor Union filled an official complaint regarding Oracle Ethics Code and the lack of compliance of Offshore operations.

The complaint was dismissed without further investigations.

The wall street journal is reporting an FBI investigation towards Oracle African deals, initiated few years ago, that could unveil many very unethics affairs, if the Tax havens operations secrecy could be blown out.

How many times shall we wait before state of art accounting, independant certification and operations transparency is enforced in subsidiaries like Cayman Islands ?

When are we really going to shut down these darn tax haven ?

You will find very few Electronic traces of tax haven operations, employees, web sites, contacts - We should not get exposed to our own Ethics code whisleblowing process ! Opacity is at its maximum, and no one knows who watches these subsidiaries !

Read More : Oracle Capac Registration
High tech Planet : Secrets of an IT Road Warrior - An imaginary novel figuring a millionaire - Luke Mc Ellis.
And even more iconoclastic : Larry's fake interview on youtube

US Senator Levin : "We gotta shut down these darn tax havens"

Yet an other view from the Anti Tax Haven Bill.

And always our requests for a better corporate responsability, for a better world..
How about the Oracle Financial Vehicules transparency ? ...

Amidst Heated Budget Debate Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act Targets $100 Billion in Lost Tax Revenue

From Global Financial Integrity, the following annoucement gives more ground for our request of country-by-country financial reporting. Let's put the haven Islands aside.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Carl Levin introduced the “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act” today, taking aim at offshore tax haven abuses which cost approximately $100 billion in lost tax revenue per year. The bill contains an array of provisions which would permanently close offshore tax loopholes, raise revenue, and increase transparency and accountability for multinational businesses. The bill is cosponsored by Senators Bill Nelson, Sanders, Shaheen, and Whitehouse, and is supported by business leaders and public interest groups including Global Financial Integrity.

“Passage of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act would be a game changer,” said Global Financial Integrity (GFI) director, Raymond Baker. “It would close offshore tax loopholes, remove incentives to send money and jobs overseas, level the playing field between small businesses and multinational corporations, and strengthen law enforcement and tax collection capacities.”

The bill also contains a provision (§201) to require annual country-by-country reporting by SEC-registered corporations related to their employees, sales, purchases, sales, financing arrangements, and taxes. This provision is similar to §1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 which requires all U.S. and foreign companies registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to publicly report how much they pay governments for access to their oil, gas and minerals.

“The country-by-country reporting provision adds a layer of pro-investment, best practices accountability to this bill,” said Mr. Baker. “For investors, the more information available about a company’s business practices and balance sheets, the better. This reporting requirement would also help anti-corruption and economic development efforts in developing countries by creating more transparency and accountability in the business dealings between multinational companies and governments.”

Playing with taxes...

As shown in Oracle 10K FY10, Oracle is still decreasing its overall Tax Income provisions going from 2313 M$ in FY08, 2241 in FY09, to 2108 M$ in FY10.
In the same period, the operating income jumped from 7844 to 9062 M$ !

Despite multiple litigations on this subject, Oracle managed again an incredible performance in tax savings.

The word "Tax" is written more than 300 times in the document. It is showing the impressive amount of energy invested in Tax optimisations. Tense negociations are held worldwide with various Tax autorities, and Oracle systems, Offshore Islands screens are definitly not making the game easier for local gouvernement control.

A few quotes :

[...]our ability to repatriate funds held by our foreign subsidiaries to the United States at favorable tax
rates;

Changes in tax laws or tax rulings may have a significantly adverse impact on our effective tax rate. For
example, proposals for fundamental U.S. international tax reform, such as certain proposals by President Obama’s Administration, if enacted, could have a significant adverse impact on our effective tax rate.

[...] We previously negotiated three successive unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements with the IRS that cover many of our intercompany transfer pricing issues and preclude the IRS from making a transfer pricing adjustment within the scope of the agreements. These agreements are effective for fiscal years through May 31, 2006. We have submitted to the IRS a request for another renewal of this Advance Pricing Agreement for the years ending May 31, 2007 through May 31, 2011. However, these agreements do not cover all elements of our transfer pricing and do not bind tax authorities outside the United States.

This month, Oracle France will have to pay tens of million Euros in settlement of a dispute with the French Tax ministry. Always the question of transfer prices.
Ten Million Euros will also benefit Oracle French Employees, through a mandatory rule called "Employee Participation".
A small victory on the very very long road for more progressive and equitable taxation - who needs to be cared about : simple citizens, small companies, or huge corporations ?

To be continued - Tax Justice Network.