Amazon to Pay $118 Million to Settle Italian Tax Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. will pay 100 million euros ($118 million) to the Italian tax authorities for the period of 2011-2015 in a settlement that closes the fiscal probe by the country’s tax police, Italy’s Revenue Agency said in an emailed statement Friday. 

Amazon confirmed in a separate statement that it reached an agreement and its local branch now has all revenues, expenses and taxes accounted for in Italy.

The settlement comes three days after Facebook Inc. announced it will start paying taxes in the country where sales are made. An Italian Treasury spokesman said the same day the announcement amounted “to an important change that is a step in the right direction.”

The change may bring Italy about 100 million euros of additional tax revenue per year, Il Messaggero reported Wednesday.

The Italian government has made combating tax evasion one of its priorities for the last few years, probing a number of high profile international companies. Google in May agreed to pay an additional 306 million euros to settle tax inquiry related to the 2002-2015 period.

Kering’s Gucci is also cooperating with Italian tax police on investigation of its operations in the country, the company said in a statement in December.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Ermakova in Milan at mermakova@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz

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