Italian Police Say Amazon Has Evaded $142 Million of Taxes (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Milan tax police have told Amazon they believe the world's largest online retailer has evaded around 130 million euros ($142 million) of taxes in Italy, a source close to the matter said on Friday. The allegedly unpaid taxes refer to the period between 2011 and 2015, when Amazon made revenues of around 2.5 billion euros in Italy, the source said. The tax police's findings have been handed to Milan prosecutors, the source added. Amazon issued a statement denying it had evaded any taxes, and said its profits in Italy, on which taxes are paid, had been low due to its considerable investments in the country.

Comments

Avoidance vs. Evasion

[gnasher719]

Just so that everyone knows: "Tax avoidance" is anything that allows you to pay less taxes that is _legal_. "Tax evasion" is anything that allows you to pay less taxes that is _illegal_.

With tax avoidance, the worst that can happen is that the tax office changes what you have to pay. You cannot be prosecuted for tax avoidance. With tax evasion, you can go to jail. Here the claim is "tax evasion".

Well, that is assuming that whoever translated it from Italian got it right. There have been plenty of cases where things just get reported wrong.

Re: No way!

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Italy is the size of Russia when it comes to economy. Bigger recently in fact. In the US, it would be comparable to the states of Texas or New York. Which leads to the question...are you on drugs?