Italian tax police searched Amazon’s headquarters in Milan, as well as searching the homes of seven of the company’s managers and the offices of auditing firm KPMG on Thursday, amid a new tax evasion probe.

The searches by the Guardia di Finanza, delegated by the Milan prosecutor’s office, were reported by local news media following an earlier report by Reuters, all citing unnamed sources, as the investigation has not yet been made public.

The new investigation, which is one of several faced by Amazon in the country, is looking into whether Amazon had a permanent, undisclosed base in Italy from 2019 to 2024.

Milan prosecutors opened the investigation targeting Luxembourg-based Amazon EU Sarl and its director on suspicion of failing to disclose income, according to a search warrant cited by Reuters.

The warrant claims Amazon may have had a permanent base in Italy before August 2024, when it entered into a compliance programme with Italy’s tax agency.

In 2024, Amazon EU Sarl dismissed and rehired 159 employees of another Amazon company that prosecutors believe constituted a permanent establishment in Italy up to that time, the warrant claims, citing an investigation and witness statements.

Tax police reportedly seized computers and other devices belonging to managers, and hard disk drives where deleted corporate emails are stored.

KPMG’s offices were reportedly searched because it was one of the firms that supplied an opinion on the actions the probe is targeting. KPMG is not itself under investigation.

Amazon said the actions were “aggressive and wholly disproportionate”.