Facebook to pay 100m in Italian fiscal accord

Social media giant Facebook has agreed to pay more than 100 million euros ($114 million) to end a fiscal fraud dispute, Italian tax authorities said Thursday.

Italy has already drawn similar agreements from Amazon, Apple and Google, joining EU neighbours seeking a bigger tax take from multinationals previously able to use loopholes allowing the booking of profits in countries with more favourable tax regimes.

The accord aims to "end the disagreement relating to tax enquiries undertaken by the financial police (GdF) at the behest of the Milan prosecutor for the period 2010-2016," Italy's tax authority said in a statement.

The authority added that Facebook Italy would be "making a payment of more than 100 million euros."

Online retail behemoth Amazon agreed a similar deal last December while in May last year Google agreed to pay 306 million euros to end a dispute relating primarily to 2009-2013 profits booked in Ireland.

Ireland has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the European Union.

Apple had earlier, in December 2015, agreed to make payment of more than 300 million euros on Italian-generated profits dating back to 2008.

© 2018 AFP