Stefan Mileschin

The new Italian government of Matteo Renzi's first job was to abandon a tax that would force firms that advertise and sell in Italy to pay up.

The move was supposed to make sure that Google and Apple who make a fortune in Italy did not get to send all their dosh to off-shore bank accounts in Ireland.

However cynics claimed that it was just another shot fired against Google by Silvio Berlusconi to protect his media empire against the Internet, Google and YouTube.

The only problem was that the law, created by Enrico Letta was poorly worded. Not only was it easy for Google and Apple to get around, the EU warned that it was illegal.

Graziano Delrio, Renzi's chief of staff, told a press conference that the law had been cancelled and that was the end of it.

Renzi took to Twitter to brag about cancelling the law, something which should really annoy ordinary Italians. The only victors of his efforts are big corporates who have refused to pay tax in Italy. The law was a silly idea, but Renzi had promised to sort out the cronyism and nepotism which goes on between big business and government. It is a little annoying that his first act should be bailing out big business.

Renzi still has to get the law voted out, which is expected to happen this week.

http://news.techeye.net/business/ita...rom-google-tax