Avoiding paying income taxes is the lastest twist in the stock options game. A game that such companies as Symbol Technologies Inc. (SBL) and Mercury Interactive Corp. (MERQ.PK) seemed to have played in order to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax, according to federal investigators.
The Securities and Exchange Commission stock option investigations have focused mainly on the trend to push back the grant date on stock options, which can guarantee profits when the grants are eventually exercised.
But their interest net has now pulled in companies possibly abusing exercise dates as well, such as Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) to name just two of the hundred or so companies they and the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are scrutinizing in separate investigations.
As some of these cases have progressed, 46 executives and directors have lost their jobs with further investigations, indictments and restatements being expected.
Read the full NYTimes.com article to learn more about backdating and exercise dates.
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