Apple Pays $348M Italian Tax Bill

Apple has been ordered to pay €318m as part of an Italian tax probe, though this is less than half than the company was alleged to have owed.

USA tech giant Apple will pay Italy’s tax office 318 million euros ($348 million) to settle a dispute and sign an accord next year on how to manage its tax liabilities from 2015, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Italian investigators found a huge gap between the company’s revenues and taxes it paid.

According to Italian daily “La Repubblica”, the United States firm stood accused of shortchanging the Italian taxman to the tune of 880 million euros ($960 million) during this five-year period, by shifting profits to its subsidiary in Ireland, where corporate taxes are much lower. Apple has claimed that it pays “every dollar and euro it owes in taxes”.

But, after months of negotiations, the tax authorities agreed to close the case in return for around a third of that amount.

The US company has not commented on the agreement. According to an OECD report, national governments the world over lose $100 billion to $240 billion, or 4 to 10 percent of global tax revenues, annually because of tax-minimizing schemes employed by multinationals.