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Italiano Japan Tobacco: A Total Tax Evader, Gives Alms in Lombardy
Roberto Formigoni, president of the Lombardy Region
When one leaves an unpaid bill that would make the Guinness Book of Records, we would expect that someone would try to make him pay up, but, on the contrary…
The president to the Lombardy Region, Roberto Formigoni, in a touching ceremony, awarded a plaque to Pier Carlo Alessiani, director of Japan Tobacco Italia, for the company’s support to the elderly of Milan.
With profits that exceed 500%, Japan Tobacco succeeds in taking home the total sum without paying a euro of tax. This is because the business it declares in Italy is «Società di consulenza & pubbliche relazioni, ingrosso beni durevoli vari» (Consulting and public Relations Company, wholesale various durable goods). Why did Formigoni, instead of spitting in his face, as the popular Italian comic Totò would have done, feel the need to reward the CEO making Japan Tobacco look like a benevolent, meritorious company?
Since 2005 the company, “sensitive to society’s evolutionary developments and processes”, the Project states, “member custodian of the health”, in partnership with the Lombardy Region, the City of Milan, the non-profit Foundation of Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus, the Aler of Milan and other groups, has aimed at providing assistance to persons who are elderly, alone and fragile, residents in areas of social hardship of the of the Milanese metropolitan area.
“We have our headquarters in Milan and we feel ourselves part of the city and of the community and of Lombardy - said Alessiani - and we are very proud to take part in projects that have their foundation in the territory and in its needs, projects that allow us to put into practice our values of solidarity and social sensitivity”.
But, in fact, Japan Tobacco takes mountains of cash from the pockets of the Italians in total silence. The company manufactures all its cigarettes abroad and an affiliated foreign company, with headquarters in Holland, sells them directly on the Italian market without even having to fill in a tax report.
Actually, Japan Tobacco has hundreds of representatives who visit the 58 thousand tobacco shops of the peninsula, together with a substantial phalanx of hostesses who circulate in discos and social gatherings giving away free product samples. In spite of this, officially the company does not even handle cigarettes, and no judge has ever charged it with having a “stable organization” in Italy, which would entail paying taxes here.
How much would Yesmoke Tobacco S.p.A., that manufactures all its products in Italy, have to declare to the tax office if it sold 800 million packs of cigarettes in one year, as Japan Tobacco does? At an average price of 4 euro, corresponding to about the average sales price of the Japanese company’s brands (that include Winston at 3.90 and Camels at 4.20), Yesmoke would declare 396 million euro in profits.
If Japan Tobacco, with its two cents of charity, is the prototype of a parasite, Formigoni, in his ignorance, superficiality and lack of preparation, looks like the prototype of the incompetent Italian politician.
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