Rome (AFP) – Tech giant Google has paid 326 million euros to Italy following an investigation into alleged unpaid taxes, Milan prosecutors said Wednesday, as they recommended criminal proceedings be dropped.
Italian authorities had accused Google Ireland Limited of failing to declare and pay taxes on income generated in the country between 2015 and 2019, with the probe focusing particularly on revenues obtained through selling advertising space. Under an agreement reached with Google, “the company proceeded to payment of…326 million euros in taxes, fines and interest, to resolve the outstanding matter with the Italian tax authorities,” Milan prosecutors said in a statement. As a result, the prosecutors said they had submitted to a judge a request to dismiss criminal proceedings in the case.
In a statement to AFP, a spokesperson for the tech company confirmed the deal, without giving a figure. “Google and the Italian Revenue Agency have reached a settlement, resolving a tax audit for a period between 2015 and 2019 without litigation,” it said.
The EU has had little success in getting tech companies to pay more taxes in Europe, where they are accused of funnelling profits into low-tax economies like Ireland and Luxembourg. In one of the most notorious cases, the European Commission in 2016 ordered Apple to pay Ireland more than a decade in back taxes — 13 billion euros — after ruling a sweetheart deal with the government was illegal.
But EU judges overturned the decision saying there was no evidence the company had broken the rules, a decision the commission has been trying to reverse ever since. The commission is also fighting to reverse another court loss, after judges overruled its order for Amazon to repay 250 million euros in back taxes to Luxembourg.
© 2024 AFP
