IRS Wants $234M From Amazon

It must be mug-an-online-vendor day

Amazon is fighting the US taxmen over a $234m unpaid bill.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told the online superstore in November that it owed taxes in 2005 and 2006, and also challenging its tax deductions, according to a court filing seen by Reuters.

But Amazon has countered that the IRS is overestimating how much its "intangible assets", such as software and trademarks, are worth, which would also affect tax figure calculations.

The IRS is concerned about the web bazaar's "transfer pricing", which is a neat little tax dance in which corporations buy something the whole company needs in one country and then charges its regional branches to buy it off them, often at a markup.