Sony Corp said yesterday that Japanese tax authorities have ordered it to pay an estimated ¥27.9 billion (US$243 million) in additional taxes.
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau ordered the company to pay the additional taxes related to its game console and other operations in the US after finding fault with previous tax filings, Sony said in a statement.
Sony planned to file a protest with the tax authorities promptly, arguing that the additional taxes would constitute double taxation under the terms of US-Japan bilateral tax treaties, the statement said.
The company also plans to request bilateral consultations on the matter.
The tax authorities notified Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc that it had found fault with tax payments related to profits from the game console operations of SCEI's US subsidiary from 1999 to 2004, the statement said.
The authorities also said Sony should pay additional tax reported profits from transactions relating to CD and DVD disk business operations between Sony and a number of overseas subsidiaries in 2003 to 2004, the statement said.
Based on the taxation bureau's calculations, the two companies had Japanese income of ¥74.4 billion more than the amount that they reported, and this would incur extra taxes of around ¥27.9 billion, it said.
The notification comes only a day after electronics maker Sharp Corp said it will pay ¥300 million in back taxes after Japanese tax authorities accused it of hiding income over three years.
Sharp denied intentionally hiding income and said it would comply with the order to pay the back taxes.
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