Software giant Microsoft is suing the Internal Revenue Service in an effort to get details of an agreement between the tax regulator and a law firm examining how Microsoft tallied its sales between subsidiaries.
The IRS’s look at “transfer pricing,” or how companies charge for goods and services bought and sold between a company and its international subsidiaries.
Microsoft said the IRS is looking over the company’s income tax returns for its fiscal years 2004 through 2009.
In May, the IRS entered into a $2.1 million contract with law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to provide services related to the tax audit, Microsoft said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.
In September, Microsoft said it filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking details of the contract between the IRS and Quinn Emanuel.
The IRS twice said it needed an extension of the 20 days required by law to respond to the request, eventually proposing to provide a response by Dec. 9, Microsoft said.
Source: Bend Bulletin
