Venezuelan Tax Agency Orders Shutdown of IBM, Others

[cal04]

Venezuela's tax agency said that it had imposed fines and ordered the temporary closure of several foreign companies, including International Business Machines, due to tax irregularities. The Seniat agency ordered the 48-hour shutdown of U.S. computer company IBM Corp.'s office in Caracas, as well as auto parts company Bosch Rexroth Corp., for bookkeeping irregularities related to the value added tax, the agency said in a statement.

Others such as Microsoft Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens and Colombina SA will face closures ranging from 24 to 48 hours, as well as fines, it said. The reasons for the punitive actions against the latter were unclear. Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Seniat officials have pursued an aggressive "zero evasion" campaign that has helped the government of President Hugo Chavez reach new tax collection records. The president has said that all companies must pay their taxes, particularly foreign ones that pay taxes in their home countries but often skip what they owe in Venezuela.

Under Chavez, Seniat has told foreign oil companies they owe more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes going back several years. The government has said oil companies won't be able to continue operating in the country if they refuse to pay those claims.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBR9Y1JGEE.html

[Cha]

1. Everybody must pay their

fair share of taxes except in the bushwa country where it's a badge of honor to cheat.

[napi21]

2. Hmmm. Guess that means they can't get away with the same stuff

in foreign countries that they've been pulling in the US for years!

I'm actually glad to hear this! So many major Cos have felt untouchable for so long, it's about time somebody smacked them upside the head!

It's just too bad it wasn't their HOME Country that did it!

[northzax]

3. this seems fishy, I must say

a bunch of foreign companies just shut down without explanation? the IBM issues probably relate, if there is anything to them, to internal transfers of materiel without paying VAT on them. And a VAT is supposed to make everything simpler?

[K-W]

6. Without explanation?

I thought the explanation was owed taxes.

[Igel]

7. I was a bookkeeper in a small organization.

There were irregularities. Things misposted, corrections made. Enough to investigate; nothing to find under the laws as they stood at the time, nothing to hide, nothing to be particularly embarrassed about.

Then I was on the Finance Committee of an organization with gross revenues over $75 million a year. There were irregularities; mispostings; corrections made. The people with no bookkeeping experience suspected embezzlement, malfeasance, and all manner of crimes at every turn. Those, of course, were people who had never made a typo or arithmetic mistake in the last 5 years of their short lives.

It's easy to investigate. Not to difficult even to find things, if you raise the bar enough, that could be construed as embarrassing. And spun to be evidence of evil foreign elitist corporations out to defraud the real owners of Venezuelan wealth of what's properly theirs. Truth and politics ... any two nouns can be joined by 'and' without stating a connection, however remote, between them.

[K-W]

9. How is any of that relevant to this topic?

I was a bookkeeper in a small organization. There were irregularities. Things misposted, corrections made. Enough to investigate; nothing to find under the laws as they stood at the time, nothing to hide, nothing to be particularly embarrassed about.

Congratulations.

Then I was on the Finance Committee of an organization with gross revenues over $75 million a year. There were irregularities; mispostings; corrections made. The people with no bookkeeping experience suspected embezzlement, malfeasance, and all manner of crimes at every turn. Those, of course, were people who had never made a typo or arithmetic mistake in the last 5 years of their short lives.

These are judgements made by Venezuala's tax agency, not people with no bookkeeping experience.

It's easy to investigate. Not to difficult even to find things, if you raise the bar enough, that could be construed as embarrassing.

Construed as embarrassing? Huh? This is about unpaid taxes not an embrassing accounting error. Meanwhile you have not presented an argument that Venezuala has fabricated these charges, only a hypothetical.

And spun to be evidence of evil foreign elitist corporations out to defraud the real owners of Venezuelan wealth of what's properly theirs.

Of course, hypothetically if the government's charges were bogus...

But I'm not terrifically interested in hypotheticals. Also, I dont see why Venezuala would need to manufacture evidence to prove that elitist corporations are out to defraud the real owners of Venezualan wealth, because there is a wealth of evidence proving that already.

[Igel]

14. The point is that if I were in a tax agency and I got

orders to investigate a company's books, there's probably not a company sitting there that I couldn't justify investigating. No charges yet down such; just investigations. And they can be invasive and crippling in many ways.

And I could investigate and question and investigate until I find enough stuff that could be construed to be illegal to file charges. Even if I lose. As bookkeeper (in charge of everything from data entry to preparing the year end financial statements for the board and CPA to review), I knew the tax law. Enough. But I'm sure that I didn't know everything in it that I could have run afoul of: there were hundreds of changes each year.

Remember: Arthur Anderson, in the end, wasn't guilty: unanimous SCOTUS verdict. But, in the meantime, the case hurt a lot of people's careers. A few of those people I knew from UCLA.

If a government wants to do serious harm to a person or company, they can. It's indistinguishable from honest to goodness law enforcement, until the end, when it's realized that the convictions are trivial, but had outsized (and very politically convenient) results.

[K-W]

16. Right, your point is a hypothetical. Its just innuendo.

Of course foul play is possible, it is always possible.

The point is that if I were in a tax agency and I got orders to investigate a company's books, there's probably not a company sitting there that I couldn't justify investigating. No charges yet down such; just investigations. And they can be invasive and crippling in many ways.

Sure. How does this relate to Venezuala?

And I could investigate and question and investigate until I find enough stuff that could be construed to be illegal to file charges. Even if I lose. As bookkeeper (in charge of everything from data entry to preparing the year end financial statements for the board and CPA to review), I knew the tax law. Enough. But I'm sure that I didn't know everything in it that I could have run afoul of: there were hundreds of changes each year.

Large companies should have the resources to comply with even very complicated law codes, but regardless, what on earth does this have to do with Venezuala?

Remember: Arthur Anderson, in the end, wasn't guilty: unanimous SCOTUS verdict. But, in the meantime, the case hurt a lot of people's careers. A few of those people I knew from UCLA.

What does this have to do with Venezuala?

If a government wants to do serious harm to a person or company, they can. It's indistinguishable from honest to goodness law enforcement, until the end, when it's realized that the convictions are trivial, but had outsized (and very politically convenient) results.

Yes, this is hypothetically possible.

What does it have to do with Venezuala?

[Igel]

17. You did read that it was a tax agency *in Venezuela*.

Do you think that somehow the Venezuelan tax agency operates on principles different from the tax agencies in the rest of the world? That it has no connections whatsoever with the rest of the Venezuelan government? That Chavez is so far beyond the petty politics of the remaining 190 or so countries in the UN that he need never be suspected of playing politics?

Chavez is following a pattern. The pattern is still ambiguous; it might go in one of at least two different ways. I'm not going to prejudge the direction, but insist on acknowledging the ambiguity.

[superconnected]

10. Then you get places like Enron.

Lots of typos.

[1932]

13. and WorldCom and Arthur Anderson, and Global Crossing ...

... and who else?

[Voltaire99]

4. Careful, Hugo. Our Democratic leaders want to CUT corporate taxes!

I'd hate to see a brilliant leader like Chavez invaded by a corporate dunce like Hillary.

[DemInDistress]

5. way to go Hugo...

stick it up their ass like the Bush Crime Family has done to us Americans.. I love it...

[Javaman]

8. It's called cleaning house and streamlining the system...

Chavez is making all foriegn companies pay to do biz in his country. He probably realized that they were loosing money hand over fist because of the sweet deals this corps had for themselves. Chavez is thinking that his nation comes first and the deals come second. I think he wants to level the playing field before he makes any new contracts.

[1932]

11. I remember reading that Haiti was about to enact an income tax prior

to the last coup.

I don't think there's going to be a coup because of this, but the wealthy tend to take taxes very seriously.

[VegasWolf]

12. How UnAmerican, corporations paying their fair share of taxes! nt

[NashVegas]

15. Perhaps This is Why Chavez Cashed Out Their US Reserves.

Before the US could retaliate by freezing any assets.

[Roland99]

18. That radical socialist state hates our freedoms.

Better send some troops down there to straighten them out.

[sarcasmo]

19. Hugo knows how to collect a debt. Kick