MILAN: Facebook parent company Meta faces a potential tax bill of around 870 million euros ($925 million) in Italy after prosecutors launched an investigation into the company, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The investigation was opened by Milan magistrates at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which asked the Guardia di Finanza police and the Italian Revenue Agency to check if there is a case for user registrations to be subject to tax.
Neither the EPPO, which is based in Luxembourg, nor Meta were immediately available for comment.
News of an administrative tax audit into Meta was first published on Wednesday by Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano.
The two sources said that investigators believe that free membership on Meta platforms comes in return for access to user data and should be classified as an exchange of services, therefore subject to VAT sales tax.
Italy’s tax police and revenue agency calculated a model under which Meta would have had to pay around 220 million euros of sales tax in Italy in 2021, according to the sources.
The figure for the period back to 2015 was calculated at 870 million euros.
One of the sources explained that the most relevant point was the establishment of a link between free access and data transfer as a taxable transaction, which could have repercussions for other multinationals and other countries in Europe.
The assessment by the Italian authorities has been brought to Meta’s attention and a dialogue was under way between the company and the revenue agency, according to the sources.
The company may decide either to accept the results of the investigation and pay the requested amount, or contest it and open an administrative dispute.
In recent years, the Milan Prosecutor’s Office has opened several tax investigations against multinational tech companies such as Google and Apple.
Usually, once an agreement for payment has been reached, the criminal investigation is closed.
Italy pursues Facebook’s Meta for $925 million in sales taxes
https://arab.news/v8xhk
Italy pursues Facebook’s Meta for $925 million in sales taxes
- Link between free access and data transfer to be considered a taxable transaction, Italian Revenue Agency said
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
