State seeks Delphi taxes

Michigan officials say auto supplier owes millions in unpaid business and use levies, dating to 1999.

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The state of Michigan is conducting two new tax audits at Delphi Corp. as it presses a bankruptcy court to force the supplier to pay $10.5 million in unpaid business taxes.

Troy-based Delphi in a court filing this week disclosed that the state is auditing whether the supplier properly paid use taxes from 1999 through 2005 for its Delphi Automotive Systems unit. A separate audit of the company’s Delphi Technologies unit will begin shortly and will be completed before a court hearing on Feb. 10 on the matter in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

The audits center on whether Delphi properly paid use taxes, which are similar to sales taxes, on computer software and other information technology and utility services.

Delphi said it is working with the state’s auditors. In a Jan. 2 court filing the company acknowledged it may owe a limited amount of unpaid use taxes.

In Michigan, a use tax is paid for storing or using personal property on items that weren’t subjected to Michigan’s sales tax. The state’s use tax is assessed at the same rate as Michigan’s 6 percent sales tax. Under Michigan law, certain purchases are exempt from use taxes, which Delphi claims exists in this case.

The audits are in addition to the State Treasury Department’s claim in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that the company failed to pay $10.5 million in single business taxes between 2002 and 2004 by improperly using foreign tax credits for research to offset its state tax liability.

Delphi in a court filing said it properly paid its single business taxes. A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Treasury, Terry Stanton, declined to comment on the audits or the SBT case.

Two executives to get $24.6M

Separately, Delphi has agreed to pay its top two executives at least $24.6 million in cash and stock when the company emerges from bankruptcy early this year, part of an executive compensation program that’s been widely criticized by the company’s unions.

Delphi CEO Rodney O’Neal will receive a $5.3 million cash payment and an initial stock and option grant of $10 million, with half the amount in stock when the company exits bankruptcy, which is expected by the end of March.

O’Neal will be paid a base salary of $1.5 million annually, and beginning in 2009 will get annual stock and option packages worth at least $6.7 million. He is eligible for annual bonuses of at least $1.9 million.

Outgoing executive chairman Robert S. "Steve" Miller will receive an $8.3 million cash payment upon the company’s emergence from bankruptcy.

The company has also decided to boost the amount of cash payments made to the top 560 executives to $87 million over the $78 million announced last month.

The United Auto Workers and Delphi’s other unions have filed objections to the salaried bonus program in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.