Prosecutors in Genoa said on Friday that booking.com, a travel company, has reached a settlement to settle a tax issue in Italy by paying around 94 million euros ($100.25 million). With this revelation, global corporations and Italian authorities—who have already resolved disputes involving luxury organizations like Kering (PRTP.PA) and American tech titans like Apple (AAPL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), and Meta’s (META.O) Facebook—have struck another high-profile tax settlement.

In a statement, Booking.com praised the agreement. “While we maintain that we are and always have been in compliance with applicable Italian VAT laws, we can confirm that we have come to an amicable, mutual agreement with the Italian Revenue Agency relating to 2013 to 2021”.

2018 saw the opening of an inquiry by prosecutors in the port city in northwest Italy into Booking.com, a Dutch company, for its handling of property taxes for rentals through its website. In June 2021, the tax police of Italy’s Guardia di Finanza claimed that Booking.com had avoided paying 153 million euros in value-added tax (VAT) related to vacation rentals between 2013 and 2019.

In November of last year, Dutch magistrates accepted an Italian European investigation order (OIE) allowing Italian prosecutors to question two former Booking.com senior financial executives as part of the investigation.

Prosecutors in Genoa then expanded the scope of their tax claims to encompass 2022. The direct negotiations between the corporation and the Italian tax agency resulted in the settlement on Friday.

According to the prosecutor’s statement, Booking.com agreed to function as a tax replacement for all transactions with private people not registered for VAT. It filed its VAT return in Italy for 2022 for a tax equivalent to more than 19 million euros.

TAX RECEIVING

The investigation centered on Italian value-added tax (VAT) on payments made by private parties to each other for rental properties listed on the website of Booking Holdings Inc., a Delaware-based online travel agency.

Booking.com acts as a go-between for visitors and property owners. Unprofessionally managed private accommodation websites frequently lack a VAT number. According to Italian tax authorities, the online travel agency needs to function as a withholding agent in these situations, obtaining taxes.

After investigating 896,500 property owners who had contracted with Booking.com, the Italian tax police found that the company had failed to remit VAT owing to Italy. They further stated that this allowed the company to undercut other hotel chains.

The business had stated at the time that owners of hotels and B&Bs were in charge of gathering and paying the VAT that they were due in Italy and other EU nations.

In a related case concerning a business’s obligation to collect taxes on behalf of tax authorities, an Italian judge took 780 million euros from Airbnb (ABNB.O). This website lets people rent short-term homes.