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Almost certainly it was illegal, yes, certainly highly dubious process which at one point threatened to being down the European Commission president. The Europe
by justincormack 11y ago
Almost certainly it was illegal, yes, certainly highly dubious process which at one point threatened to being down the European Commission president. The European Commission is investigating eg see [1] and Amazon have stopped doing it. Oh and Amazon's head of tax was Luxembourg Honorary Consul to the Seattle are, hum.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/15/amazon-luxembourg-tax-arrangements-scrutinised-brussels http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/15/amazon-lux...
- ptaipale 11y ago"Almost certainly" apparently means that no one was able to conclude that it was illegal. If crimes had been committed, they would have been prosecuted, but there were no grounds. However, companies may still decide to change the way they do things, e.g. for PR reasons.
- justincormack 11y agoNo, "almost certainly" means the preliminary ruling found against Amazon/Luxembourg [1] but the final ruling has not taken place yet. It is not a matter of prosecution, they will have to pay back the money to Luxembourg. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/cases/254685/254685_1614265_70_2.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/cases/254685/25468...
- ptaipale 11y agoActually, the ruling is against Luxembourg. Not against Amazon. I just wish EU courts were even remotely as efficient in acting against states and enforcing the EU treaties in cases where the state is collecting tax more aggressively than what EU rules would allow.