An Italian supreme court ruling has put an end to a 39-year legal dispute between Oscar-winning film star Sophia Loren and Italian tax authorities.
The argument centred around Loren’s earnings in 1974. She claimed tax was owed on 60% of her income, but the state said it should be 70%.
The Court of Cassation ruled in her favour, saying the actress’s earnings were covered by a 1982 tax amnesty.
“A saga that has lasted nearly 40 years is finally over,” said Loren.
“I always look to the future and I leave bad experiences like this one behind me,” she was quoted as saying by the La Stampa daily newspaper.
Her lawyer, Giovanni Desideri, said: “The supreme court has wrapped up a Kafkaesque case.”
Loren, who was born Sofia Scicolone and started her film career in 1950, famously spent 17 days in prison in 1982 in a separate tax dispute — an incident that drew her fans to the jail near Naples.
She said at the time that her tax specialist had erred, meaning her tax return understated her earnings by about 5 million lire (then $7,000).
