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Here's the perfect example of why we can never rely on "voluntary oversite" to enforce corporations to do the right thing:

For the second time in 12 months, the government has moved to block a tax shelter that had been aimed at converting billions of dollars of corporate profits, on which taxes have yet to be paid, into profits that will never be taxed.

As part of a $12.5 billion stock repurchase, I.B.M. used a foreign subsidiary to buy back shares through foreign exchanges. The subsidiary then used the shares to pay its corporate parent in America for goods and services.

"It's just a way to bring the profits into the United States without paying taxes by using the stock as currency," said H. David Rosenbloom, an international tax lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale and director of the international tax program at New York University Law School.

Think about it. The financial officers of IBM very clearly chose to avoid paying the proper taxes ($1.6 billion) because they knew that they had a case to be made with the IRS. They also must have known that the IRS might rule against them, yet they chose to go ahead with trying to steal $1.6 billion from tax payers. In effect, the corporation (in this case, IBM) will always choose to press ahead, leaning against the ambiguity of the law if it benefits shareholders.

How many other times has this happened? And isn't it clear, that given a choice when the law isn't clear, the corporation will always choose the option that benefits shareholders?

Hence, "voluntary oversite" is a useless phrase that really means, "payoff to the monied interests that own our congressmen and senators."

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