Written by Director on May 22, 2013.
That the workers put on layoffs had always been right? With regard to the corporate crisis that has led Sigma Tau to put more than 400 employees "to rest" at the expense of the community, new suspicions are floating around, due to the decision of the pharmaceutical company to incorporate its Portuguese sister company Defiante, taken by the Board, which intends propose a cross-border merger, on which the shareholders' meetings of both the Italian and Portuguese companies will have to decide. This choice therefore suggests that, while in Italy Sigma Tau turns to the State for the recognition of social safety nets, in the rest of the world it enjoys excellent health. We recall that last year, following the company's declaration of crisis, there was a controversy over the relationship between Sigma Tau and Defiante, which became the subject of an assessment by the Revenue Agency, which already in 2010 drew up a "Process report of findings" in which the company was accused of alleged tax evasion through a procedure called transfer pricing, or a transfer of value from one company of the group to another based abroad, which will have to pay the tax place of the first. According to what is written in the 117-page report made by the Revenue Agency, the transfer of value would have been made in favor of Defiante, the Portuguese subsidiary based in Madeira, a tax haven for many Italian entrepreneurs. Last February the national media were also interested in the affair, from Presadiretta to Il Fatto Quotidiano, where it was reported that “by making comparisons with similar and comparable companies, the inspectors quantified the lower revenues that Sigma Tau has accounted for in Italy at 11.55 million euros, evading them to the tax authorities. The lower revenues of 2007 are already half of those reported by Sigma Tau in 2010 equal to 20 million euros. Furthermore, Defiante, as shown by the insights made by Presadiretta, multiplied his net worth between 2000 and 2010, bringing it from 31 to 310 million euros. In the same period, the assets of the Italian company increased from 123 to 34 million euros. Except that in Madeira, the headquarters of Defiante, taxes are practically not paid and rates of 1, 2 and 3 per cent have only recently been introduced. The VAT is 13 percent, the lowest in Europe. In Italy, however, Sigma Tau has launched a heavy restructuring with layoffs and the downsizing of the research center".
