The Treasury punishes Amazon in what is considered the largest inspection that a technology company has received in recent years, given the questions raised by its VAT returns. Finally, it has had to pay a total of 68 million between the amount owed and late payment interest.
In 2021, tax inspectors They began with an investigation into Amazon with the aim of clarifying the questions that existed in the VAT payments made up to that point. The e-commerce giant, Once the pertinent investigations have been concluded, it has been forced to carry out the pertinent regularization: paying a total amount of 68 million euros. Far above another similar procedure in which IBM was involved a year ago, quantified at 50 million euros. Establishing, in this way, a new record in our country.
Fiscal years between 2018 and 2021
The investigation has been carried out solely taking into account the VAT payments that Amazon Online Spain had made between the fiscal years 2018 and 2021. So it does not include any of the last two years, which could be in the same situation as the previous ones. Despite the fact that the Treasury inspectors communicated in October 2022 the results to Amazon, the numbers have not emerged until today, as published by the specialized newspaper La Información.
The 68 million euros that he had to pay correspond to the sum of 65 million taxes that have not been paid at the time and the sum of three million more in financial interest and delays. According to the same media previously cited, the multinational had already considered that it had to pay a amount similar to that filed finally as a result of “changes in the interpretation of the rules.” In addition, it has also become clear that they do not expect there to be any more similar sanctions, being satisfied with the total amount that must be paid. The objective was to avoid possible fines after the fact, as has already happened with other technology companies, such as Microsoft.
Advertising management
The activity of the Spanish subsidiary that has received the sanction corresponds to the management of advertisements for its operations in Spain. In addition, since 2016, it has also offered its services to other companies in the same group. In 2022, the income of this company was 421 million euros, growing considerably from the 357 million euros it billed in the previous twelve months. The impact of the sanction was such that, following the same source cited above, the subsidiary needed to “reestablish its financial situation and ensure the continuity of its operations” by requesting an injection of 16 million euros from the parent company, which, finally, was carried out.
Once all the terms of the relevant operation have been known, we are faced with the largest regularization that has been carried out in our country towards a technological giant. Adding 18 million more to the fine imposed in the amount of 50 million of euros towards IBM in 2022.
