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Nokia Protests After Indian Offices Raided by Tax Officals
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Nokia's Indian subsidiary has protested about a recent tax raid on its offices, calling them "excessive and unacceptable".
Several Nokia offices were raided by tax officials last month as part of the investigation into allegations that the company did not pay taxes on software licenses -- which reportedly amount to around US$450 million dating back to 2006.
Nokia, which denies evading any taxes, says that it has sent a "letter of objection" to the Indian tax authorities.
"The actions of the income tax authorities in Chennai are excessive, unacceptable and inconsistent with Indian standards of fair play and governance," Nokia said in a statement.
"Specifically, in tax investigations like this, local standards would prohibit government officials from entering the factory premises and offices of Nokia IT Systems without valid authorisation, and questioning individual employees for intolerably long periods of time, even after they have fully cooperated with the authorities," Nokia said.
Nokia added that it still hasn't seen the full allegations against it and is relying on media reports to keep it informed of developments.
India imposes a 10% tax on any payments made by a local subsidiary to a foreign parent company for software. The Indian handset factory is said to have purchased US$4.5 billion worth of handset software since 2006, which should have resulted in a payment of US$450 million to the government.
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