Fashion house Armani pays $467m to settle Italian tax dispute

MILAN (Reuters) - Fashion house Giorgio Armani paid 270 million euros (S$467 million) to the Italian tax authorities to settle a dispute over payments from the group's subsidiaries abroad, Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Friday.

A spokesman for the company, owned by its eponymous founder, said the report was correct but declined to comment further. All tax claims against Armani, which saw sales rise to more than 2 billion euros in 2012, were now closed, the paper said.

Italy has become more interventionist on taxes during its longest recession since World War Two, and companies in high-profile sectors such as luxury goods are in the crosshairs.

Prada Holding, which controls fashion house Prada, paid a reported 420 million euros to settle taxes in Italy after completing a process of voluntary disclosure in December.

Few tax cases come to court, with the notable exception of design duo Dolce and Gabbana, who were convicted of hiding hundreds of millions of euros from the tax authorities. They have appealed against the ruling and the verdict is due on April 30.

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