Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Ebay: the global internet giants end up in the crosshairs of the Renzi government, which wants to force them to pay taxes on the turnover produced in Italy. Today there are legal tax avoidance techniques that allow these companies to save a lot of money: in our country, companies that operate online pay the tax authorities less than 10 million euros a year against a turnover of 11 billion, or less than one per thousand. Worldwide, on average, they pay less than 1% of their turnover in taxes.
As reported today by The Corriere della Sera, for a few days on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's desk there is a plan based on precise suggestions from the OECD and developed by the Undersecretary for the Economy Enrico Zanetti (Scelta Civica) while the game with the Italian taxman. The project is in three points:
1) withholding tax of 25% operated by banks and intermediaries on payments to multinationals based abroad (Google Italy, for example, operates as an advertising broker for the parent company in Ireland and pays taxes in Italy only on commissions, not on the value of the contracts, i.e. about two million euros instead of a few billion);
2) tax credit equal to the amount of taxes paid in Italy in the country of residence of the companies to avoid double taxation;
3) an alternative option for these companies is to declare a "permanent establishment" in Italy, with "its own balance sheet and taxable income".
The aim is to include this proposal in the new package of legislative decrees implementing the tax reform mandate that the Government will present in June. The Executive also aims to give regulatory coverage to the investigations of the Revenue Agency and to the investigations of the Public Prosecutors against the great protagonists of the online economy.
