The Internal Revenue Service has been auditing the firm’s profit distribution across countries and jurisdictions.

However, Microsoft argued that “the issues raised by the IRS are relevant to the past but not to our current practices” .

There has long been worry that the largest firms in industrialized countries do not pay enough tax.

Tech behemoths have been chastised for reporting lower profits in high-tax areas and bigger profits in lower-tax locations in order to reduce their tax burden.

Microsoft stated in a securities statement that the IRS was requesting an extra tax payment of $28.9 billion, plus penalties and interest.

According to the corporation, it has “always followed the IRS’s rules and paid the taxes we owe in the United States and around the world.”

It stated that any taxes owed following the audit would be lowered by up to $10 billion due to tax regulations enacted by previous President Donald Trump.

Other American digital companies, including Amazon and Facebook, have faced similar pressure to pay higher taxes.

Other US authorities have also been looking into Microsoft this year.

It agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $20 million in June after the corporation was found to have improperly acquired data on youngsters who had created Xbox accounts.

However, the company’s plan to acquire Activision Blizzard, the maker of Call of Duty, for $68.7 billion is anticipated to be completed soon.