February 07,2003

Hearing to Focus on Enron's Tax Dealings

Hearing to Focus on Enron’s Tax Dealings

Event: Hearing, “Enron: the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Investigative Report”
Date/time: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003, at 10 a.m.
Location: 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Description: One year ago, Finance Committee leaders Sens. Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus
asked the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation to analyze the Enron Corp.’s tax records and practices. The senators asked the Joint Committee to determine whether the company’s tax practices were legal, somewhat questionable, highly questionable, or even illegal. Grassley, the Finance Committee chairman, said the analysis is critical toward shaping legislation that curbs questionable tax activities.

For example, Grassley said, the committee just passed legislation to rein in tax shelters through a mandatory disclosure regime to the Internal Revenue Service, but the committee might need to revise that legislation to reflect the tax practices of Enron and other similarly situated companies. The Joint Committee on Taxation will release its report analyzing Enron’s tax practices at the hearing. Witnesses will explain the report and amplify its findings.

Witness list:

• Lindy L. Paull, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation, Washington, D.C.
• Dr. Jim A. Seida, Assistant Professor, Mendoza College of Business, University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
• Dr. George A. Plesko, Assistant Professor of Management, Sloan School of
Management; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Dr. Edmund Outslay, Professor, Department of Accounting, the Eli Broad College
of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
• Professor Kathryn J. Kennedy, Associate Professor, the John Marshall Law School,
Chicago, Illinois

Note: The Joint Committee’s report will not be available before the hearing.

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