Italy: Netflix faces tax evasion probe

By
AFP
|
Netflix in Italy tax evasion probe: reports. Photo: Complex

MILAN: Italy has launched an investigation into Netflix on the allegations of tax evasion against the streaming service.

Corriere della Sera, a leading local daily, reported the probe is into "persons unknown" as the US subscription video service has neither a headquarters nor employees in Italy.

Netflix, which landed in Italy in 2015, had some 1.4 million subscribers last year, according to the Comparitech technology site.

AFP was not able to confirm the newspaper report immediately with the financial police or Milan's public prosecutor's office.

Prosecutors in the northern Italian city have lead several major tax investigations against US web giants, allowing the Italian government to recover millions of euros in unpaid taxes.

Last year social network Facebook agreed to pay Italy more than 100 million euros after just such a probe.

Online retail giant Amazon forked out over 100 million euros in 2017, while Google paid 306 million euros. They followed Apple, which in 2015 handed over more than 300 million euros.