Largest ever US tax settlement
The IRS announced today that it has resolved the largest tax dispute in American history: a transfer pricing dispute with Glaxo SmithKline Holdings (Americas) Inc. & Subsidiaries (“GSK�):
Under the settlement agreement, GSK will pay the IRS $3.4 billion, and will abandon its claim seeking a refund of $1.8 billion in overpaid income taxes, as part of an agreement to resolve the parties’ long-running transfer pricing dispute for the tax years 1989 through 2005….
The Tax Court dispute for years 1989-2000 involves intercompany transactions between GSK and certain of its foreign affiliates relating to various GSK “heritage” pharmaceutical products. Specifically at issue is the level of U.S. profits reported by GSK after making intercompany payments that took into account product intangibles developed by and trademarks owned by its U.K. parent, and other activities outside the U.S., and the value of GSK’s marketing and other contributions in the U.S. Under the settlement agreement, GSK has conceded over 60% of the total amount put in issue by the two parties for the years pending in Tax Court….










September 16th, 2006 at 2:38 am
For a view on this see http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2006/09/15/gsk-pay-up/