MUMBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Indian tax authorities have askedIBM's Indian unit to pay 53.57 billion rupees ($866.20million) in outstanding income tax on fiscal 2009 revenue, mediareported on Saturday.
In an emailed statement, an IBM India spokeswoman confirmedthe company had received a tax notice, but declined to commenton the amount of tax liability or the nature of the notice.
India's Income Tax office issued the company a notice forunder-reporting revenue for fiscal 2009 by the Indian unit, theBusiness Standard newspaper said, citing a tax official.
"IBM does not agree with the tax department's claims andwill aggressively defend itself through the appropriate judicialprocess," the IBM India spokeswoman said.
IBM has been locked in a tax dispute with authoritiesrelated to its 2009 reporting year income, media have reportedpreviously.
Officials at India's income tax office were not availablefor comment on Saturday.
In its latest 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission (SEC), IBM said it had recorded $394 millionin prepaid income tax in India "at" Sept. 30, 2013. IBM said a"significant portion" of that amount was paid in order toreserve its right to appeal previous tax assessments in India,which it said it expects to win in appeal.
The tax office notice was a draft assessment order which canbe challenged by IBM before the appellate authorities, theBusiness Standard said
The case comes as India is pursuing tax claims againstseveral multinationals, with Royal Dutch Shell, andVodafone Plc among several firms involved in taxdisputes in the country.
