Key Points:
- Tax police searched Amazon’s Milan offices and managers’ homes.
- Investigators suspect the company evaded taxes between 2019 and 2024.
- Authorities seized hard drives to recover deleted employee emails.
- Amazon recently paid over €500 million to settle a separate tax dispute.
Italian tax police raided Amazon’s headquarters in Milan on Thursday. The officers executed a search warrant as part of a fresh investigation into tax evasion by the American tech giant. Sources confirmed that the Guardia di Finanza also searched the private homes of seven Amazon managers and the offices of the auditing firm KPMG.
Milan prosecutors believe Amazon operated a permanent business base in Italy from 2019 to 2024 without declaring the income to local authorities. The investigation targets Amazon EU Sarl, a branch based in Luxembourg, and its director, Barbara Scarafia. The warrant suggests the company failed to pay the taxes it owed during that five-year period.
Investigators are focusing on specific staffing changes to prove their case. The warrant states that Amazon dismissed 159 employees from one company in 2024 and immediately rehired them under Amazon EU Sarl. Prosecutors argue this maneuver shows that Amazon maintained a permanent workforce and presence in Italy long before it officially entered a compliance program with the Italian tax agency in August 2024.
During the raid, police seized computers and IT equipment. They specifically looked for hard drives that might contain old employee emails. Amazon typically deletes staff emails from its central systems every three months, so investigators hope the physical drives hold evidence that is no longer on the servers. Police also searched KPMG because the firm provided advice on the business decisions now under scrutiny.
This raid adds to Amazon’s legal troubles in the country. The company faces multiple probes regarding its tax practices. In December, Amazon agreed to pay 510 million euros ($605 million) to settle a different dispute with Italy’s tax collection agency.
Prosecutors are currently wrapping up other investigations as well. These include a case involving suspected evasion of 1.2 billion euros and another inquiry into alleged customs fraud related to Chinese imports. Neither Amazon nor Scarafia’s lawyers provided immediate comments on the situation.
