Don’t Cram Audits Down Investors’ Throats
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Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Last month, a Senate investigativepanel put a spotlight on how the accounting firm Ernst & YoungLLP helped Hewlett-Packard Co. use gimmicks and loopholes toavoid taxes on billions of dollars of profits stashed overseas.
The program involved money transfers through the CaymanIslands, as well as transactions structured to make cashdistributions into the U.S. from offshore subsidiaries seem likenontaxable loans. Ernst & Young isn’t just a tax consultant toHP; it is also the computer maker’s outside auditor.