By Ryan J. Donmoyer Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) —
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is working with tax-collection agencies in other countries on how to conduct joint audits of multinational corporations, Commissioner Douglas Shulman said. “We are in the very early stages of looking at these protocols,” Shulman said today at a conference in Washington co-sponsored by the IRS and George Washington University. Shulman had said in June he was discussing the idea with officials in other nations. Joint audits would be part of a global effort to crack down on cross-border tax evasion, spurred in the last year by tax- evasion cases involving banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Barry Shott, deputy IRS commissioner in charge of international tax issues, said joint audits probably would be conducted by a special agency set up by the U.S. and other countries in 2004 to share information about tax shelters. “It’s new,” Shott said regarding the joint audit program. “I think you’re going to see more of it.” The special agency, the Joint International Tax Shelter Information Center, has offices in Washington and London. Members include the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and Japan. China and South Korea participate as observers. The agency has been used in limited cases to track individuals and companies suspected of flouting tax laws. Shulman said he has expanded the agency’s scope to encourage the exchange of information about a broader range of tax-avoidance techniques. To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer at e-mail rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net
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