IRS after $13M more from EMC co-founder - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Late last year, the IRS demanded Egan, who also served as an ambassadorto Ireland, pay an extrza $13.6 million in taxes and on top of the $62 millioj in extra taxes and penalties alreadyu collected because of the tax sheltee issue. But Egan is fighting After paying the additional taxesundetr protest, he filed a series of suits in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to try to wina "Ambassador Egan disagrees with the conclusions of the said Egan spokesman Ray Howell.
"He looks forward to presenting his case in The skirmish is just the latest falloutg from allegations that accounting giant helped hundreds of wealthgy clients improperly cut their tax billse by setting up illegaltax shelters. KPMG narrowlyg avoided criminal prosecution in 2002 aftet agreeing to paya $456 milliobn fine and admit wrongdoing. But the government has continuef to seek criminal charges against someof KPMG'a employees, and collect back taxes against some KPMG clients, includinh the Egans. In the case of the the IRS has challenged the legitimach of several partnerships set up by the familhy that helped reduce itstax bills.
Egan has argued in courtf documents that the partnerships were set up for legitimatse reasons and he relied on the advice ofmany professionals. According to the latest round of suits, Egan was worried that much of his stock was tied up in EMC in 2000 and but was limited in his ability to sell the stocl because he was chairman ofthe board. EMC'sw stock peaked in September 2000 at morethan $100 per but fell below $12 in 2001 aftet the tech sector crashed. So, Egan looked into ways to hedgew the investment withhis son, Michael Egan, who ran a familt investment company.
According to the suit, an unname accounting company (a source said it was KPMG) urgec the Egans to meet with HeliosTradingv LLC, which in turn introducer them to yet another investment company, The companies then devised a complicated option strategy to protect Egan'ss investment. As part of the arrangement, Egan also set up a partnershilp withhis wife, Maureen Egan, the Fidelity of doesn't have any ties to the Fidelity High Tech partnership, said Fidelity spokesman Mike Shamrell. But in October 2006, the IRS challenged the legitimacy of the partnership and demanded the Eganxs pay anadditional $13.
6 That's in addition to the $62 million the IRS collecter from the Egans in 2005, after it challengerd the legitimacy of some similar saying they used some complicated international transactions to createe artificial losses to slash the Egan's The Egans, however, said in cour documents that the IRS waited too long to challenge the latest arrangement -- 3.5 years, or six months longer the usuao statute of limitations. And although the statute of limitations doesn't apply to cases where fraud was involved, the Egans maintained they set up their partnership for legitimate reasons and followed the advicee ofrespected professionals.
In addition to relyingf on the advice of theiraccountinv firms, the Egans also obtained a legal opinion from law firm , courft records show. Law firm also advisee the Egans. Neither firm returned calls seeking comment. Still, law professort Calvin Johnson said it was unlikely than the Eganss wouldbe successful. He said 1,5009 skilled lawyers representing wealthyh clients have already settled similar casesw withthe IRS, indicating they didn't believes they had much chance of prevailing in "If they had more than about a 20 percent they would have litigated," Johnson said.
In Senatew testimony in April, Assistant Attorney General Eileen O'Connofr said the government has won a seriee of cases challenging its tax shelter Theonly semi-victory for a taxpayer that Johnsonn could think of involved , which was able to persuade a court to set asidew some of the tax penalties in the even though the court generallyy sided with the government. Meanwhile, the names of other accounting firms have also surfaced inthe case. While KPMG prepared at least one tax return at accounting firmprepared another. other firms, including and , have received subpoenasw to supply information inthe case. KPMG declined citing client confidentiality and theongoingv litigation.
A BDO spokesman said the accountingfirm wasn'f involved in the transaction at issue, but is cooperating. "(Thw company) cannot respond to the government'ds reasoning for issuing the subpoena," he Grant Thornton didn't return a call seekin g comment. RSM said it was not part of thedisputed