EU orders Amazon to pay nearly $300M in back taxes

[DonViejo]

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 EU’s 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 EU’s enforcement branch, concluded after a three-year investigation that Luxembourg had allowed Amazon in 2003 to shift assets from a subsidiary that’s subject to taxation to another that’s 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

[mucifer]

1. The greedy scumbs at amazon will get it back from the race to the bottom

tax system in the USA. A bunch of states are groveling now about who can give them the best incentives about amazon jobs coming to their town. It's sickening . These tax laws should be federal and not state by state.

[LisaM]

2. Why US cities are fighting to get their second HQ is beyond me.

I live in Seattle and the negative transformation of the city due to both Amazon and Vulcan should be a red flag for anyone. Insane rents, no affordable housing to buy, lower and middle income people being evicted at a fast clip while developers promise affordable housing sometime in the future, empty storefronts all over town, and a growing income divide.

$294 million is a drop in the bucket for them. It would be better to hold them more accountable going forward.