ITR Indirect Tax Forum 2023: Meta VAT investigation could 'blow up'

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

ITR Indirect Tax Forum 2023: Meta VAT investigation could 'blow up'

Data currency 2000.jpg
Aleksandra Bal, Stripe | Credit: Laurent Louis

ITR’s Indirect Tax Forum heard that Italy’s VAT investigation into Meta has the potential to set new and expensive tax principles that would likely be adopted around the world

Company profit margins hinge on Italy’s €870 million VAT investigation against Meta, tax professionals told the ITR Indirect Tax Forum 2023 in Brussels yesterday, May 23.

It was first reported in February 2022 that Milan magistrates had launched an investigation into Meta at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, pursuing up to €870 million ($925 million) in unpaid VAT on the data obtained from its users.

The ongoing investigation is based on the assumption that consumers actually ‘pay’ for ‘free’ Meta services like Facebook with their data, and that transactions should therefore be subject to VAT.

Describing the core issue, Aleksandra Bal, indirect tax technology lead at financial technology company Stripe in the Netherlands, referenced the documentary The Social Dilemma.

“If you are not paying for the product, then you are the product.”

She later added: “They [online platforms] are not completely free – when we use them we allow the service provider to collect and exploit our data.”

Bal was joined on the panel by Johan Visser, indirect tax partner at Atlas Fiscalisten in Amsterdam.

The €870 million is based on consumer data transactions from 2015 to 2021, and if the case is successful it would set a dangerous international precedent, the panel told the forum.

The speakers were concerned that if one company can owe an amount so large in one jurisdiction, the global VAT tax bill will be huge if the same rules are applied worldwide.

Discussing the Italian Revenue Agency and its investigation, Visser said: “If they succeed in this case, it will blow up every online company”.

He shared his concern that a successful case might justify the pursuit of VAT on consumer data transactions in industries extending beyond purely online service providers like Meta.

Using discount cards in supermarkets as an example, Visser noted: “If you use that card, you get a discount and they get your data, you’re buying a discount.”

He then posed the question: would those transactions also be subject to similar VAT principles?

The outcome of the case depends on the ability of the authority to establish a direct link between the data obtained and the service provided.

“It will be really hard to substantiate that in court,” said Visser.

But if the authorities do, he said, it is likely that other European tax agencies will follow suit. “They’re in line, they have been for years.”

The panel and audience also raised concerns over the way data VAT amounts are calculated.

Whether data transactions for ‘free’ services are subject to VAT in the future, and at what price, will be partly determined by the Italian tax authority’s Meta investigation.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The US president also unveiled a new 50% levy on copper imports; in other news, a UK wealth tax proposal has been criticised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Wim Wuyts, who had been head of the specialist tax network since 2017, is moving on to a new role with WTS’s Belgian member firm
MNEs are increasingly using algorithmic tools in TP. Sahasranshu Dash argues that data ethics should therefore plug directly into the TP design process
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales also queried whether HMRC resources could be better spent scrutinising larger entities
Grant Thornton’s Austria tax head likens his practice to an escape room, shares his football coaching ambitions, and explains why tax is cool
Awards
ITR is delighted to reveal all the shortlisted nominees for the 2025 EMEA Tax Awards
Awards
ITR is delighted to reveal all the shortlisted nominees for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Tax Awards
The fates of pillars one and two hang in the balance after the US successfully threw its weight around in G7 and Canadian negotiations
Rafael Tena tells ITR about the ‘crazy’ Mexican market, ditching the hourly rate, and refusing to grow his fledgling firm in an ‘unstructured way’
It should be easy for advisers to be transparent about costs, Brown Rudnick partner Matthew Sharp said in response to exclusive ITR in-house data
Gift this article