Some 150 current and former employees of Microsoft’s Japanese subsidiary must pay US$27.9 million in back taxes and penalties. Japanese tax authorities said the employees did not properly declare US$65 million in income from stock options in the years leading up to 1998. Although no names were released, Japanese newspapers said that a former president of the subsidiary was among those who were charged with failing to properly report income. According to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese financial daily, Japan has recently moved to change taxation rules on stock options, but those rules currently cover only Japanese companies. Employees of MacDonald’s in Japan faced similar penalties last year.