Brussels, 26/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - The recently announced changes in the tax structure of US giant Amazon will not impact on the investigation currently being carried out by the European Commission's DG Competition to determine whether the company gained tax advantages from a tax ruling it was granted in Luxembourg, said the European Commission on Tuesday 26 May.
“The European Commission state aid investigation is ongoing and will continue. In the context (of the ongoing investigation), we will of course consider any changes to Amazon group's tax structure. However, these changes going forward do not affect the ongoing EU state aid investigation regarding the possible advantage Amazon would potentially have received in the past through the tax ruling”, explained Ricardo Cardoso, Commission spokesman for competition issues. The Commission's investigation was opened in October 2014 (see EUROPE 11171).
Amazon announced on Tuesday that it will now declare its income in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy rather than declaring it all in Luxembourg.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company regularly examined its structure to ensure that it can serve its clients in the best way possible and propose additional products and services.
On Sunday, Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Amazon has already started paying tax in Germany (rather than Luxembourg) on profits its makes in Germany.
Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, told AFP that Amazon's decision showed that, politically, the adoption of a strong G20 plan against tax evasion should be backed. “It cannot fail”, he said.
On Wednesday, the European Commission will be holding its first policy debate on corporate taxation ahead of the publication of its company tax action plan on 17 June, which does not yet include any draft legislation. An initial overview of the action plan can be found in EUROPE 11320. (Elodie Lamer)