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EU: Amazon caught in Commission’s tax probe web

By  |  October 7, 2014

The European Commission’s probe into member states’ tax agreements with foreign companies has expanded as reports say Amazon is now under investigation.

Amazon is now facing an in-depth investigation into its tax agreements with Luxembourg, according to an unnamed source. The Commission suspects that Amazon’s 2003 agreement with Luxembourg could possible be anticompetitive and a violation of state aid law, the source said.

The Commission announced it is looking into similar tax agreements made between Apple and Ireland, Starbucks and the Netherlands, and Fiat and Luxembourg. Foreign corporations have been using mergers to relocate their taxes abroad to the EU for cheaper rates, say reports, and authorities are concerned the tactics could be anticompetitive.

The Commission says that such tax avoidance and evasion has cost the EU about $1.3 trillion a year.

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