ROME: Google agreed to pay €306 million in additional corporate tax, the Italian Revenue Agency announced.
The settlement will end an ongoing criminal investigation. According to the Financial Times, the sum compensates Italy for Google’s “underpayment” from 2002 to 2006 and 2009 to 2015.
That is significantly more than the €150 million Google paid the U.K in 2016.
France is not interested in a deal. The French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, says France must take Google to court and he expects to recover €1.6 billion in unpaid taxes.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is one among many tech companies accused of using tax avoidance tactics by registering their revenues from other EU member states in Ireland, Luxembourg, or taking advantage of zero interest on so-called “intellectual property” rights in the Netherlands.
In this case, Google is accused of booking around €1 billion of Italian revenues from Italy to Ireland. In a similar deal, Italy was also able to squeeze €318 million out of Apple in 2015.
The European Commission has accused Ireland of helping Apple to reduce its tax burden and has instructed the multinational to pay back €13 billion.
