The 2002 back tax claim was filed by Russia's tax authorities against the Russian subsidiary of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the 'Big Four' international auditing firms.
On February 2006, Russian tax authorities accused the auditor of illegitimately underrating its profit tax base in 2002 by transferring money to the Dutch PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia B.V. for services provided by foreign specialists to Russian clients. The tax authorities claimed that in reality the services were provided by staff of the auditor's Russian subsidiary.
PWC applied to a Moscow arbitration court, which rejected the company's lawsuit, after which the auditor made full payments on the 2002 back tax claim and filed an appeal to the Higher Arbitration Court, which sent the case for retrial.
However, the Moscow arbitration and appeals courts upheld the previous ruling on the 2002 back tax claim against the company. But PWC again filed a complaint with Russia's top arbitration court.
