EU orders Amazon to pay nearly $300M in back taxes
Source: The Hill
BY HARPER NEIDIG - 10/04/17 09:41 AM EDT
The European Union is ordering Amazon to pay 250 million euros, or $294 million, in back taxes, saying that the company had been given improper tax breaks.
"Luxembourg gave illegal tax benefits to Amazon, Margrethe Vestager, the EUs competition chief, said in a statement Wednesday. 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.
The European Commission, the EUs enforcement branch, concluded after a three-year investigation that Luxembourg had allowed Amazon in 2003 to shift assets from a subsidiary thats subject to taxation to another thats not.
The EU prohibits member states from offering tax benefits to certain corporations that are not available to others.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/353801-eu-orders-amazon-to-pay-nearly-300-million-in-back-taxes