14 DAY TRIAL // Symantec was hit by the Internal Revenue Service with a massive tax bill in April 2006. The object of the back taxes revolves around the value of transfers of intellectual property to the company's subsidiaries in Ireland, more exactly Veritas business unit. The IRS is seeking just over 1 billion dollars in back taxes and penalties, and Symantec was reduced to filling a petition with the U.S. Tax Court at the start of this week.
"We do not agree with the IRS position and will work with the courts to seek a definitive resolution." The vendor added, "We believe we have done everything to cooperate with the IRS to resolve this issue in good faith and we will continue to make efforts to resolve our disputes on an acceptable basis," read a statement from Symantec.
In its Monday petition, Symantec referred to the IRS's estimated amount as arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. Moreover, the security company demanded a recalculation of the deficiencies in income tax and penalties that as now runt up to $757.5 million in tax deficiencies and $303 million in penalties. The IRS's focuses on the fiscal years 2000 and 2001 and the transfer pricing Veritas approximated for technologies it licensed to two of its own subsidiaries, undervaluating intellectual property.
In more recent events, Symantec has already settled with the IRS for the 2003 and 2004 fiscal years, reducing the amount of backtaxes to only 36 million dollars from the initial claim of 100 million dollars.