http://ntj.tax.org/wwtax/ntjrec.nsf/EEA087F6813237A585256863004A5933/$FILE/v50n3487.pdf
Seems HP had about 112,000 employees, of which 33 are tax professionals and HP does all their tax work in house. Of those 33, only the equivalent of 3 man years are used for federal income tax complinace. HP spends a much bigger part of their budget complying with state and local sales and use tax. If pigdog's numbers were to be believed, HP should be spending over 6 percent of their gross revenues on tax complinace. Being about a $40 billion company that would be $2.4 Billion. Instead the figure is around $500K, which is 4800 times less than what pigdog's numbers would suggest.
And if you look critically at the HP presentation you'll see it's just a puff piece by the HP tax department pros telling everyone how great they are. You'll also notice that even in their description that not all compliance costs are included; just their one department. If you read the study, many other parts of HP are involved in the compliance effort but not counted by these guys.
Just think that with the FairTax this entire department can be eliminated for HP which would save them a few million right there plus the costs of all of the others presently involved in working with the "tax pros" to report and pay the taxes.
Oh, and BTW, I've never suggested any percentage of gross revenue due to tax compliance. I do suggest, though, that the prices of HPs products are higher than they might otherwise be (without the income tax) due to the cascading, embedded taxes that boost the prices of all that we buy.
Oh - BTW this pdf was posted about 20 or so threads ago by Nightie. I'm surprised you missed it.