The US streaming service Netflix and Italy have agreed to settle a tax dispute, the company and legal sources said Friday.
Milan prosecutors said in a statement that they had reached a deal with a global video-on-demand streaming service from October 2015 to 2019 and told it to pay EUR 55.8 million (roughly Rs. 460 crore).
They didn’t say the name of the company that was part of the settlement, but three people who knew about it said it was Netflix.
A Netflix spokeswoman said that the company is happy that the problem has been fixed.
“We have always talked to and worked with the Italian authorities, and we continue to believe that we have followed all Italian and international laws,” the spokesperson said.
Three years ago, prosecutors started to look into what they thought was tax evasion.
They said that Netflix should have paid taxes in Italy because it used digital infrastructure to get content to the 2 million users in the country.
As part of the payment agreement, Netflix has opened an office in Italy, with a base in Rome and more than 40 new employees. Netflix and Italy came to a deal about taxes.
Italy’s tax police started the investigation, which was led by prosecutors in Milan. They said that Netflix’s use of cables and computer servers was the same as having a physical presence in Italy.
Prosecutors in Milan have already looked into Apple, Amazon, and Facebook for tax evasion. This has helped Italy get a few billion euros in fines and taxes.
