Say What? Porsche In Trouble For Catering Expenses

Volkswagen AG’s Porsche sportscar unit is under investigation by the Stuttgart tax office over the way it accounted for marketing and catering expenses during the past 8 years, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The expenses amount to as much as 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), but the financial hit for the company will be significantly smaller, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is confidential. Porsche has already paid a substantial amount since the probe started last year and may have to make another payment close to 100 million euros, according to the people.

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PUGPROUD - 6/29/2018 4:42:45 PM

+1 Boost

Sounds like a lot of vienna schnitzel to me!

ricks0me - 6/29/2018 9:30:11 PM

+4 Boost

Go to any college / university in the USA and the leftist that work there, both professors and administration, stuff their ugly face every day. I know this for a fact because I use to feed them. They were eating off the back of those that struggled to pay tuition. I quit over the ethics of this !!!

Now the usual suspects can chime in and lecture me. The Steve, where are you on this one?

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 6/29/2018 10:42:13 PM

0 Boost

@ricks0me what does your flashback to your college days kitchen job have to do with an article about bad/shady/punishable accounting practices by an automaker? If anyone here is a CPA, it would be good to get their take on this.

TomM - 6/30/2018 7:22:55 AM

+1 Boost

My first inclination is to say that when I taught a course in College - a meal was PART of my contract - and it was valued and I had to pay income tax on the value. Full time Professors likely have certain meals included in the same way.

However - this thread has nothing to do with your experience - the question is whether the catering was actually tax deductible - a completely separate concern. In a lot of cases - it is - and in others it is not - and when you are audited - they will separate those - even in the USA.

ricks0me - 6/30/2018 6:25:46 AM

+1 Boost

CC: My comments show that catering is abused at more places than just Porsche. I am glad that I could break this down to the lowest common denominator for you.

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 6/30/2018 8:17:19 AM

0 Boost

@riks0me, if you really focus on the article it is largely about the poor accounting of Marketing expenses at its core. Nobody spends $1.2B Euros on sandwiches. I am sure catering is a small fraction of the overall spend being reviewed.

malba2367 - 6/30/2018 8:21:59 AM

+6 Boost

Porsche has a history of commuting financial crimes. Google VW short squeeze and read about one of the most brazen market manipulation schemes in recent history.