Sony really just can't catch a break lately: the PS3's too hard to make, Microsoft's got a year on them in the next-gen war, Immersion won't let them use Rumble and Ken Kutaragi is a lunatic. And now, the cow that drops through the roof of your barn after your survive the twister: Sony's been ordered to pay an additional $243 million in taxes to the Japanese Government.

The taxes are in relation to transactions between the games division and a U.S. subsidiary, as well as overseas transactions in its CD and DVD-making operations. Said Sony:

Sony and SCEI believe that their allocation of income for the periods in question was appropriate and that they have paid the proper amount of taxes in each of the jurisdictions.

It's a bad tax season for Sony, after they were previously nailed with 100 million in back taxes after a U.K. court ridiculed Sony's argument that the PS2 was a home computer, and therefore could safely dodge E.U. taxes on entertainment machines. Florian Eckhardt

Sony says ordered to pay extra Y27.9 bln taxes [Reuters]

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