Firms pay back transfer pricing tax

Italian frame manufacturers Luxottica and Safilo will together pay back almost €48m to the Italian Revenue Agency as a result of transfer pricing investigations.

Safilo said that as a result of the tax audit for 2007, subsequently extended to 2008-2011, there was an increased charge of €21m, of which €7m was already accounted for in the financial statement of December 2012. It would be paid in 12 quarterly instalments.

‘The group remains firmly convinced that its conduct was appropriate. Nonetheless, Safilo has decided to accept the settlement proposal, as the key matters of the dispute are largely subjective, in as much as they imply, for instance, the evaluation of the arm’s length nature of the application of prices to foreign subsidiaries.’