Microsoft paid $3.1 billion to settle tax debt

InformationWeek | at | by Mike

Microsoft paid the federal government $3.1 billion between July and September of last year to settle a tax debt that was discovered during an Internal Revenue Service audit, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing.

As a result of the payment, Microsoft's cash flow from operations for the first half of its current fiscal year declined 1.2% compared with the first six months of its fiscal year 2008, to $9.2 billion, the company said in its second-quarter report.