Around 20 companies affiliated with English-language school operator GEOS Corp. failed to declare some 280 million yen in income in the five years to March 2000, industry sources said Thursday.

This total includes 130 million yen in concealed revenues, the sources said.

Auditors at the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau who investigated the Tokyo-based company also found that GEOS President Tsuneo Kusunoki and his wife, who serves as vice president, failed to report more than 200 million yen in personal income in the three years through 1999, they said.

Kusunoki is suspected of obtaining part of the affiliates' undeclared income for his personal use, the sources said.

The GEOS group companies, along with Kusunoki and his wife, have been ordered by the tax authorities to pay a combined 120 million yen in taxes and penalties, they said.

The company underreported its income by padding expenses for employees' business trips, the sources said.

The tax auditors also disallowed expenses claimed by GEOS for inspections of GEOS language schools abroad by its "promising employees," deciding that these expenses fell under the category of taxable social spending, they said.

In a separate case, the tax authorities told Kusunoki to pay an additional 100 million yen for withholding income tax on his income for the 1996-1997 period, the sources said.

Kusunoki lived in Switzerland and other countries during this period and had only 20 percent of his income deducted at source because he was classified as a nonresident.

The tax auditors found, however, that he frequently returned to Japan and based his activities in the country and should therefore have paid income tax at a rate of 50 percent as a resident of Japan, the sources said.

GEOS was established in 1973 in Kusunoki's native Tokushima Prefecture with capital of 490 million yen. Its 13 affiliated companies now operate 475 schools nationwide. The company also operates 40 language schools in 13 other countries.

Altogether, it has some 1,300 teachers and 90,000 students. Its annual revenues exceed 20 billion yen.