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Italian Regulators Conclude Corporate Tax Investigation Against Apple

Tuesday March 24, 2015 6:05 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Italian regulators have completed an investigation into allegations that Apple failed to pay €879 million ($964 million) in corporate taxes, according to Reuters. The report states that, under Italian law, prosecutors can now ask a judge to bring the case to trial. Apple claims that it has paid all necessary taxes in countries that it operates and is confident that the process will be resolved.

Apple Store Italy

Apple's flagship Via Roma retail store in Torino, Italy
The investigations accuse Apple of booking profits generated in Italy through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly €900 million from 2008 through 2013. Apple argues that it's "one of the largest tax payers in the world and paid every euro of tax it owed wherever it did business," and believes that the allegations against its employees are without merit.

It said the Italian tax authorities had audited Apple’s Italian operations in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and confirmed it was in full compliance with the OECD documentation and transparency requirements.

"These new allegations against our employees are completely without merit and we’re confident this process will reach the same conclusion," it said.

Apple is one of several multinational tech companies, including Amazon and Google, that have faced corporate tax investigations in the United States and Europe. The U.S. Senate accused Apple of avoiding billions in income taxes in May 2013, while the European Union accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland after completing a formal investigation into its questionable tax practices in the country last year.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Italy, European Union, corporate tax

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

AppleInTheMud

48 months ago

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

Apple must really be almost like religion to you... And if you would read the whole thing, Apple is going/ has been going to court in several nations. That happens if you cheat or get to "creative"

Insert your face and Apple instead.:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc (//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc)

Rating: 30 Votes

1080p

48 months ago

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

Rating: 24 Votes

Mike Oxard

48 months ago

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

It wouldn't need so much money if Apple had paid it's taxes.

Rating: 20 Votes

jayducharme

48 months ago

Change the laws and you'll change the behavior. Apple follows whatever legal means it has to keep its spending in check. Every corporation does. The difference with Apple is that its earnings are on such a massive scale, eclipsing most other world businesses, that it's examined more closely.

Rating: 18 Votes

solamar

48 months ago

It wouldn't need so much money if Apple had paid it's taxes.

Are you kidding me? Italy is one of the most politically corrupt gov'ts on earth..

They literally consider bribes as part of the legal system.

Rating: 16 Votes

AppleInTheMud

48 months ago

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

Feel sorry for you, when you think it's like that.

Rating: 15 Votes

Attonine

48 months ago

In before people confuse tax avoidance (legal) with tax evasion (illegal).

Exactly. The core problem is the law makers making incompetent laws. At the moment we do not know whether Apple are guilty of anything. We do know however, that recently, on both sides of the Atlantic, corporations have been victimised for tax avoidance, which is completely legal - and in some cases could be argued a fiduciary obligation, yet lawmakers have done absolutely nothing to resolve the broken tax codes.

Rating: 13 Votes