From Italy, with love

Italy’s Parliament today passed a new measure on web advertising, the so-called “Google tax,” which will require Italian companies to purchase their Internet ads from locally registered companies, instead of from units based in havens such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Bermuda.

In July, at the request of the Group of 20 nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development proposed a blueprint to fight strategies used by companies such as Google Inc. (GOOG), Apple Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) to shift taxable profits into havens. Italy is the first major European government to pass legislation to combat the problem of moving corporate taxable earnings into havens, which costs Europe and the U.S. over $100 billion a year, since the OECD proposal.

Italy’s measure is “fairly obviously contrary to EU law,” said Sol Picciotto, an emeritus professor of law at Lancaster University in the U.K. Still, he said the law “will put further pressure on the OECD to sort it out.” The OECD isn’t scheduled to complete its plan until the end of 2015.

Italy Approves ‘Google Tax’ on Internet Companies

Via Bogdan