- Italian tax police carried out raids in Gucci’s offices in Milan and Florence
- Fashion company is accused of declaring Italian sales in Switzerland
- This arrangement is alleged to have saved them £1.14bn in domestic tax
Italian police have raided the offices of fashion giant Gucci over suspected tax evasion, the company confirmed on Monday.
The global fashion house is accused of declaring several years worth of Italian sales in Switzerland, thereby saving around 1.3 billion euros (£1.14bn)in domestic tax, Italian media reports.
The investigation is reportedly based on information from a former senior Gucci employee who has since left the company, which is part of French luxury group Kering.
Allegations: Gucci is accused of declaring several years worth of Italian sales in Switzerland, thereby saving around £1.14bn in tax
La Stampa said financial police had spent at least three days searching Gucci’s new, ultra-modern Milan headquarters and also other offices.
‘With respect to an article concerning an audit by the local tax police conducted at Gucci’ls offices in Florence and Milan published in an Italian newspaper today, Gucci confirms that it is providing its full cooperation to the respective authorities and is confident about the correctness and transparency of its operations,’ Gucci said in a statement.
Gucci, the biggest contributor to Kering’s profits and revenues, has enjoyed a revival in recent years.
Raids: Italian tax police carried out raids in Gucci’s offices in Milan and Florence
In the third quarter of 2017, the company reported a 49.4 percent rise in sales on 1.5 billion euros of sales.
Four years ago, fellow Italian fashion behemoth Prada had to pay 470 million euros to the Italian taxman after it declared a decade’s worth of home revenue abroad.
The Italian tax dragnet has since extended to tech giants – 318 millions euros of Italian revenue for Apple and 306 million for Google while investigations are also under way regarding Amazon and Facebook.