Yesmoke Tobacco S.p.A.

Joe Camel – A Total Tax Dodger

• Taxation
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«Fellows, you haven’t understood anything: we lost the war and if Big Tobacco doesn’t pay taxes in Italy as it should, there’s nothing strange about it” - say the experts.

But Japan didn’t win the war either, because it was part of the  ROBERTO (the Rome, Berlin Tokyo axis). An Italian  taxpayer who buys a pack of Camels should know that Japan Tobacco  does not pay a single cent of tax on the profits earned from his purchase, and it is pocketing the money.

How much would Yesmoke Tobacco S.p.A. have to report to the Italian tax office if it sold 800 million packs of cigarettes, as JTI - Japan Tobacco International Italia - does in one year?

At an average price of 3.90 euro – JTI's average sales price for its cigarettes (going from Winstons at 3.70 to Camels at 4.00 euro), Yesmoke would have to declare a profit of 376 million euro.

The cartoon Joe Camel (1988), said “to appeal younger, male smokers, who had been deserting Camel in droves”.

For the Japanese, however, the Italian taxman is not a problem: they produce their Camels abroad and they have an affiliated foreign company with headquarters in Holland that sells them directly on the Italian market without even filling in an income tax report.

The Japanese method is even more brazen and outrageous than that of Philip Morris Italia.  The Americans, too, have their Marlboros produced by foreign companies, but from them, they buy them at an exorbitant price.

So, Philip Morris Italia ends up with “an insignificant profit”, which requires the payment of a symbolic bit of loose change in taxes.  On the other hand, Japan Tobacco Italia srl, with headquarters in Milan, does not pay out even that symbolic loose change, because officially it is not involved in cigarette sales.  It only “promotes” cigarette sales, and as expected, no one is interested in JTI.

Going after the Tax Evader - The Italian Way

JTI has been taking cash out of the pockets of Italians for a long time, strongly supported by Italy’s well-known “Omertà” - Code of Silence. How long has this been going on? How much have they stolen up to today? And yet, in Italy, we talk about tax evasion every day and the hunt for evaders is strongly propagandized.

Have a look at the site: www.evasori.info: citizens can denounce evaders by computer. The home page shows a map of Italy with the latest criminal reports: 33 euro evaded in the province of Torino by a restaurant owner, 12 euro by a street vendor in the province of Rome, 30 euro evaded here… 50 euro there….

Read what these idiots have written on their home page: “We Italians are always complaining about tax evasion, and yet often we close our eyes on it. You, too, can report the shop owner who doesn’t give you a fiscal receipt, or the professional who gives you a higher bill if you want an invoice with tax: it’s easy to report them (even with your cell phone!) and it’s anonymous, also for the evader. Let’s work together and draw up a map of this social phenomenon!” (…).

Japan Tobacco International Italia Srl — the third cigarette producer in the world, holds 17.5% of the Italian market. The activity it declares in Italy: «Società di consulenza & pubbliche relazioni, ingrosso beni durevoli vari» (Consulting and public relations company, wholesale of sundry durable goods.

Japan Tobacco International – Grouped Balance Data – Italia

• April 21st, 2009
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