Reuters is reporting that New York has filed a lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp for over $300 million. The carrier is accused of tax fraud for allegedly not collecting or paying more than $100 million in taxes over the last seven years. The complaint was filed Thursday in the New York State Supreme Court by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The suit is the first one to be filed under the state’s False Claims Act and could end up costing Sprint three times the amount it’s accused of not paying. New York requires mobile phone companies to collect and pay sales tax for mobile services and has since 2002. Schneiderman is claiming that since 2005 Sprint has underpaid and falsified records in an effort to choke out their competition by offering cheaper rates.

Sprint has issued the following statement:

“This complaint is without merit and Sprint categorically denies the complaint’s allegations. We have collected and paid over to New York every penny of sales taxes on mobile wireless services that we believe our customers owe under New York state law. With this lawsuit, the Attorney General’s office is claiming New York consumers, who already pay some of the highest wireless taxes in the country, should pay even more. We intend to stand up for New York consumers’ rights and fight this suit.”

Stick around for more info as we get it geeks!

Source:
http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/19/new-york-sues-sprint-for-300-million-over-alleged-tax-fraud/

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