M. Continuo

Olympus faces back taxes of $5 billion yen: Nikkei

03/07/2012 - 19:37

(Reuters) - The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau is seeking 5 billion yen ($62.60 million) in back taxes and penalties from Olympus Corp stemming from its acquisition of British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group Plc in 2008, The Nikkei business daily said.

OLYMPUS (JP7733.TK)is struggling to recover from an accounting fraud uncovered last year by its then CEO, Michael Woodford. It was forced to correct years of accounts, leaving its balance sheet badly weakened.

The taxation bureau said Olympus underreported its income by about 15 billion yen for five years through March 2011, the NIKKEI (NIKKEI225.)said, adding that the undeclared 15 billion yen is what Olympus claimed to have paid for financial advice it received in relation to its acquisition of Gyrus.

(Reporting by Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)