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Italian government levels tax fraud accusation at Apple, raids local HQ

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Authorities have seized equipment from Apple's Italian headquarters in the course of an investigation into accusations that the company shielded more than €1 billion in profits from Italy's tax authorities, according to a new report out of Milan.


Apple's Via Roma store in Torino, Italy

Apple's Italian operation is said to have underreported taxable income of €206 million in 2010 and €853 million in 2011. The accusations were first reported by Italian publication l'Espresso and later confirmed by Reuters, citing sources in the Italian judiciary system.

The complaint alleges that the income was booked to Apple's Irish holding company, but should have been reported to Italian tax authorities as income derived from activities in Italy. The investigation includes two unnamed middle managers from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

Apple has reportedly challenged the seizure order that followed a search of the company's headquarters in Milan, and Italian appeals courts will take up the question of its validity. A timeline for that action was not specified.

l'Espresso notes that this would mark the second Italian inquest into Apple's tax strategy in the country. The first is said to have been closed for lack of evidence.



86 Comments

macaholic_1948 18 Years · 262 comments

Case "closed for lack of evidence" is a prosecutor's weaseling way of saying we accused an innocent party. Hopefully, that is the case again. My impression of Italian prosecutors, based on a couple of recent cases receiving international attention is that they don't like tobloseconce they have decided some one is guilty. And, they will keep charging their target with crimes until the court's see it that way.

philboogie 16 Years · 7669 comments

Well of course it's [I]underreported[/I]; Apple always exceed their own guidance for the quarters ¡

adrayven 13 Years · 460 comments

Italian Gov't has been crooked for years.. They've gotten a ton of flack from locals and focusing on high profile companies that are not local is much less of a political suicide. "The investigation includes two unnamed middle managers from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. " Convenient, we'll see how this plays out.. If we see names, or not..

asdasd 22 Years · 5682 comments

Yes it's rubbish. Apple is headquartered in Ireland so it owes it's corporate taxes on wholesale profits there. It owes merely retail profits in Italy. And there is no way that retail profits would have been that much. Italy's justice system is a joke.

jason98 15 Years · 768 comments

$1B is probably less than the entire inventory Apple sold in Italy which is a country known to be not very iOS friendly.