ROME: To increase revenue from multinational internet companies, Italy has announced plans to give them a say in their future tax bills rather than risk further disputes.
Rome has spent years arguing that companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google avoid taxes by maintaining they do not have a “stable presence” in Italy, even though they generate huge revenues there.
And after making little progress on an international “webtax” at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers this month, Rome has presented legislation of its own.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, an amendment to a government decree to rein in this year’s budget deficit stipulates that multinationals with total revenues of more than €50 billion per year and sales worth more than €50 million in Italy can fix their tax bill in advance.
Companies that sign up to the scheme will not only be able to agree their tax bills in advance for future years but will also have outstanding tax claims from previous years halved.
It remains to be seen if the companies will want to participate in the scheme, but this month Google agreed to pay €306 million to settle a tax dispute after Italian tax police alleged it had not paid tax on about €1 billion of Italian revenue between 2009 and 2013.
The legislation is expected to be approved by the Chamber of Deputies next week, but will not be passed by the Senate until June.ss
