Guidant Corp. is the gift that keeps on taking away for Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX), this time via a $525.1 million dunning from the Internal Revenue Service.
The misguided $27 billion acquisition acquisition has been nothing but trouble since BSX bought the defibrillator maker in 2006. Now the IRS wants Guidant’s parent to pay more than half a billion dollars — plus interest — to settle Guidant’s tax bill from 2001, 2002 and 2003, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Boston Scientific said it disputes the agency’s tally of transfer pricing between domestic and foreign Guidant subsidiaries, according to the filing.
"We do not agree with the transfer pricing methodologies applied by the IRS or its resulting assessment," BSX wrote in the. "No payments on the assessment would be required until the dispute is definitively resolved, which, based on experiences of other companies, could take several years."
The company said it expects to be able to cover any expenses and tax liabilities from the case with its income tax reserves.
