Tech giant Google has paid 326 million euros to Italy after an investigation into alleged tax evasion, Milan prosecutors said.
Italian authorities have accused Google Ireland Limited of failing to declare and pay taxes on income generated in the country between 2015 and 2019, with the investigation specifically focusing on income from the sale of advertising space.
Under the agreement reached with Google, “the company has made a payment of 326 million euros in taxes, penalties and interest, to resolve the dispute with the Italian tax authorities,” Milan prosecutors said in a statement, AFP reported.
As a result, prosecutors have asked a judge to drop the criminal proceedings in the case.
The European Union has had little success in trying to get tech companies to pay more tax in Europe, where they are accused of shifting profits to low-tax countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg.
In one of the most famous cases, the European Commission ordered Apple in 2016 to pay Ireland more than a decade of unpaid taxes – 13 billion euros – after finding that a preferential deal with the government was illegal.
However, EU judges overturned that decision, saying there was no evidence that the company had broken the rules, and the Commission has since been trying to overturn that ruling.
