It looks like Apple is not the only company in the firing line with the European Commission today. The regulator ha just announced that Amazon has to pay €250 million in unpaid taxes to Luxembourg.
According to the European Regulators, Luxembourg has granted ‘undue tax benefits’ to Amazon of about €250 million. Amazon has apparently paid less tax than it should in the country compared to other companies.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said “Luxembourg gave illegal tax benefits to Amazon. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazon’s profits were not taxed. In other words, Amazon was allowed to pay four times less tax than other local companies subject to the same national tax rules. This is illegal under EU State aid rules. Member States cannot give selective tax benefits to multinational groups that are not available to others.”
The report says that Amazon was able to move its profits from one company in Luxembourg which is subject to tax to another company called Amazon Europe Holding Technologies which is not subject to tax.
The European Commission has now said that Luxembourg must collect the money plus interest from Amazon. As yet there is no statement from either Luxembourg or Amazon on the ruling.
Updated: 12:40 BST
Amazon has now released a statement regarding the ruling by the European Commission, which you can see below.
“We believe that Amazon did not receive any special treatment from Luxembourg and that we paid tax in full accordance with both Luxembourg and international tax law. We will study the Commission’s ruling and consider our legal options, including an appeal. Our 50,000 employees across Europe remain heads-down focused on serving our customers and the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who work with us.”
Source European Commission
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