Amazon's tax troubles in Italy escalate, leading to criminal charges
Prosecutors have requested a trial in Milan for Amazon's European unit (Amazon EU Sarl) and four managers for allegedly helping non-EU sellers (mostly from China) avoid paying €1.2 billion in VAT between 2019 and 2021.
Prosecutors say Amazon's system let these sellers hide their identities, making it easy to dodge taxes.
Italian law says platforms like Amazon can be held responsible when this happens.
Amazon's Milan office raided as investigations deepen
Even after Amazon settled a previous tax dispute with Italy by paying a sum reported variously as €510m-€527m in December, prosecutors aren't letting this one go.
Tax police recently raided Amazon's Milan office, several managers' homes, and even KPMG's offices, seizing computers as evidence.
Investigators are also looking into whether Amazon had an undeclared permanent base in Italy and possible customs fraud linked to Chinese imports.
Meanwhile, both Italian authorities and the European Public Prosecutor are digging deeper into the company's tax practices, with Italian probes covering 2019-2021, and an additional Italian probe (into a possible permanent establishment) covering 2019-2024; the EPPO's probe covers 2021-2024.