Italy

Google has agreed to pay the internal revenue agency €306 million in taxes, sources said Thursday. The Mountain View-based company has been under investigation by Milan prosecutors for the tax years 2009-2013, one of several European probes looking into the tax practices of international companies.

A Google spokesman said the deal "resolved without disputes investigations relating to the period between 2002 and 2015". He said "in addition to the taxes already paid in Italy for those years, Google will pay another 306 million euros." Of these, "over 303 million are attributed to Google Italy and less than three million to Google Ireland." The spokesman said Google "confirms its commitment towards Italy and will continue to help the country’s online ecosystem grow".

Alitalia employees late Monday rejected a government-brokered package of job and wage cuts that was aimed at saving Italy’s flagship airline from bankruptcy, now the risk of bankruptcy looms for Italy’s flagship airline.

Alitalia said Tuesday that its board concluded that in light of the employees’ vote, it has decided to "begin procedures foreseen by law," a reference to extraordinary administration. The board could meet on Thursady to chart the next step. Such a scenario could result in shedding unprofitable routes, most likely predominantly domestic ones, to competitors, and selling off aircraft to help pay creditors.

Generally, investing in smaller companies is riskier than investing in larger companies. Large caps tend to be less volatile during rough markets as investors fly to quality and become more risk-averse. The long-term statistics certainly suggest that smaller companies do indeed outperform larger ones.

Mid caps lie between large cap stocks and small cap stocks.

In Europe the Eurostoxx Mid Index, has historically outperformed the broader Stoxx 600 Index, and in the last bull market started in 2009, the real gap in the performance between the two indexes, started in 2013, as we can see in the graph below where it is represented in the upper side the relative strength of the Eurostoxx Mid Index versus the Stoxx 600 Index, and in the lower side the historical performance of the two indexes.

In a potentially landmark case, an Italian court has ruled that excessive, work-related use of a mobile phone caused an executive to develop a benign brain tumour.

In a ruling handed down on April 11 but only made public on Thursday, the court in the northern town of Ivrea awarded the plaintiff a state-funded pension. The ruling is subject to a possible appeal.
The worker, 57-year-old Roberto Romeo, used the company mobile phone for three hours a day for a long time without protection, bringing about the non-cancerous tumor and the consequent loss of hearing in one ear, Phys.org cited."The standards say severe use is one hour a day," Romeo told Sky TG24. "I went well past the limit." Romeo sued the social security agency, not Telecom Italia, where he still works. And he added "but I believe we have to be more aware about how to use them".

Mexican prosecutors say that Tomás Yarrington, the 59-year-old former governor of Mexico’s north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, had been wanted by authorities for nearly five years and has been detained by police in Florence, Italy, according to Mexico’s attorney-general’s office. He is expected to be extradited to Mexico within days. The attorney general’s office said Sunday that ex-Gov. Tomas Yarrington is accused in Mexico of money laundering and organized crime.

The Italian Tax Agency Revenue compiled a list of possible tax evaders. After 750 Italian papers identified in Panama, there’s other special surveillance: 3,500 Credit Suisse clients who signed life insurance policies (known as polizza mantello in italian) and numbered bank accounts.

Rossella Orlandi, Director of the Agency, has announced on Thursday to send very soon to Swtizerland collective requests for taxpayers who didn’t seize the opportunity offered by the first voluntary disclosure and didn’t comply with the tax authorities.

Switzerland and Italy are in a diplomatic spat over Switzerland’s decision to close three border crossings at night in a bid to fight crime.

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Swiss ambassador for urgent talks Tuesday, emphasizing that the closings violate Europe’s norms on free circulation. Switzerland, unlike Italy, is not a member of the European Union but has signed up to the passport-free Schengen zone and free movement of persons accords.

Italy has introduced a flat rate of tax aimed at attracting wealthy expats to its shores as it looks to compete with similar regimes offered in the UK and Spain. Similar to the UK’s non-dom system, the new flat rate tax of €100,000 ($107,865) a year, which went live on 8 March, will give foreigners a special status exempting them from paying Italian tax on any offshore income and gains. This charge can also be extended to family members, at a cost of €25,000 per person.

The regime is available for up to 15 years, unless the individual fails to pay the charges. A person is considered an Italian resident for tax purposes if they are in the country for more than 183 days, or six months.