Big Tech VAT assessment: a new chapter opens in the relationship between the tax authorities and digital platforms. The Revenue Agency has contested Meta, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) for failing to pay VAT on digital services, arguing that the economic value of personal data can be equated to a fee.
An innovative thesis that, if accepted, could redefine the entire tax perimeter of digital and pave the way for new procedures in Italy and Europe. The implications are illustrated by Maria Francesca de Rubeis and Evaristo Maria Fabrizio, authors of the analysis published on Agenda Digitale.
According to the authors, the real novelty lies in the qualification of “free” services as taxable transactions, precisely because of the exchange between personal data and access to the platforms. The Big Tech VAT assessment could therefore constitute a precedent, activating a domino effect between the tax authorities of the EU countries.
On a legal level, significant issues arise regarding legal certainty, territoriality of the tax and economic relevance of data. It is clear that we are facing a possible paradigm shift in the tax treatment of web multinationals.
The debate is part of a broader framework of European regulatory evolution and pushes businesses and professionals to carefully monitor every development. In this context, QLT continues to closely follow the issues of the digital economy, to support customers and companies in a rapidly changing landscape.
The complete analysis by Maria Francesca de Rubeis and Evaristo Maria Fabrizio is available on Agenda Digitale: you can read it here.
