COMPANIES in the US are about to be stung for hundreds of millions of dollars as a patent-related tax dodge comes in for unprecedented scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service.
Under US law, a firm that chooses not to develop a technology it has patented can donate the patent to universities or charities that might have a use for it. The firm assigns a dollar value to the patent – an amount deductible from its taxable income as a charitable donation. But now the IRS wants to recoup possibly hundreds of millions of dollars from firms who have been overstating…
