Text I – items 31 to 37
A taxing battle
Nobody wants to pay t axes. No wonder, then, that
so many companies s p en d so much effort trying to avoid
them. Almost ev ery big corporate scandal of recent years,
from Enron to Parmalat, has involved tax-d odging in one
form or another.
In the lates t revelation on January 26th, Dick
Thornburgh, the man appointed to look at the collapse of
World-Com, released a report claiming that, as well as the
slew of other crooked dealings of which the bankrupted
telecoms compan y i s guilty, it also bilked the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) of hundreds of millions of dollars i n
taxes through a tax shelter cooked up by KPMG, its auditor.
Tax authorities around the w o rld rightly fret that
such cases are the tip of a large iceberg, and they are starting
to act. In America, home t o many of the best-known
co rporate-tax scams of recent years, the Bush administratio n
has announced a series of anti- t ax-d o dging measures in its
new budget, which w ill be presented to Congress on
February 2nd, including an extra $300 mil l i o n to boost
enforcement and the shutt i n g of corporate-tax dodges that
could bring in, it r eck o n s, up to $45 billion over the next
ten years.
The Economist, January 31st – February 6th , 2004, p. 71 (with adaptations).
Judge if each it em below presents a correct rewriting of the
information contained in lines 6 to 12 of text I. Still in relation to text I, judge the following items.
-
In the latest revelation on 26th January, Dick Thornburgh,
t h e man nominated to examine the fall of World-Co m,
delivered a report saying that, as well as a lot of other
dishones t transactions of which the insolvent telecoms
company is blameworthy, it also s windled the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) out of hundreds of millions of dollars
in taxes by means of a t ax s h e lter dishonestly invented by
KPMG, its auditor. -
In the last revelation on January 26th, Dick Thornburgh, the
man accredited to look into the breach of World-Com,
reported that, as wel l as a slew of other false dealings for
w h i ch the undermined telecoms companies are to be
criticised, it als o defrauded the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) o f h eaps of dollars through a tax cover created by
KPMG, its accountant. -
In the latest revelation, Dick Thornburgh, the man in charge
of evaluating the failure of W o rld-Com, issued hearsay
evidence stating that, not only many other crooked dealings
are to be attributed to broken telecoms company , but that it
also deprived the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS) of great
sums of dollars us i n g a tax device invented by KPMG, its
auditor. -
The expression “ fret that su ch cases are the tip of a large
iceberg” (R.13-14) means t h at many other similar cases
have been found. -
The substitution of the phras e “ slew of” (R.9) and the verb
“ boost” (R.19) by mess of and soar respectively would keep
the same semantic and syntactic relations as those presented
in the text. -
Th e author’s purpose is to show that governments arou n d
the world are scrabbling for scarce corporate taxes. -
Acco rd i ng to the graph, from 1970 to 2001, accumulated
corporate income tax receipts in North American countries
displayed better results than the European ones.