(Bloomberg) ? The US Internal Revenue Service denied telling the Wall Street Journal that Tyco International Ltd. owes as much as $50 million in taxes on capital gains that weren?t reported on the company?s tax returns.

The Journal reported on its Web site earlier today that the company has a ?potential $50 million tax bill? after its former tax director, Raymond Scott Stevenson, was charged on September 11 with failing to disclose $170 million in capital gains on Tyco?s 1999 corporate tax return. Stevenson pleaded innocent.

IRS Criminal Division spokeswoman Ellie Michaud, cited by the Journal as its source for the story, said in an interview she didn?t discuss with the newspaper any specific liability potentially owed by the company or Stevenson. Michaud said the Journal erroneously ?extrapolated? from general comments she made on what the capital gains tax on $170 million would be. She said she also spoke generally about the procedure the IRS follows in criminal tax cases.

?I said I cannot comment about Tyco,? Michaud said.

She and IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis said they asked the Journal to correct or clarify its story.

?We are reviewing their request for a correction,? Robert Christie, a spokesman for Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, said in an e-mailed statement. Stacey Lafond, a spokeswoman for Tyco, told Bloomberg News the company has been cooperating with the IRS in its audit. She said she couldn?t discuss any details because the audit is still in progress.

The Journal said Lafond declined to say whether the company has taken a charge for any capital gains taxes allegedly owed on the $170 million or whether it plans to do so.

Stevenson, who left the company in 2003, has been released on $100,000 bail.

Stevenson was hired by former chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski, who was convicted last year with another ex-manager of looting more than $150 million from the company, the Journal said.