Google France Being Raided For Unpaid Taxes (reuters.com)

jones_supa writes: Investigators in France have raided Google's Paris headquarters amid a probe over the company's tax payments, Reuters reports. The French Finance Ministry is investigating $1.8 billion in back taxes. According to a report in French daily Le Parisien, at least 100 investigators are part of the raid at Google's offices. A source close to the finance ministry said that the raid at Google's offices has been ongoing on Tuesday since 03:00 GMT. In February, a source at the French Finance Ministry told Reuters that the government was seeking the $1.8 billion from Google. At the time, official spokespeople for Google France and the Finance Ministry refused to comment on the situation. Google could face up to a $11.14 million fine if it is found guilty, or a fine of half of the value of the laundered amount involved. In April, the EU revealed plans to force multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Facebook to disclose exactly where and how much tax they pay across the continent. A new clause was added since the Panama Papers leak requiring the companies to report how much money they make in so-called "tax havens."

Comments

Re:Get ready everyone with anything

[Dutchmaan]

There's a reason tax laws are so "utterly absurd"... it's called loop holes.. You know when a company says "It doesn't explicitly state that I CAN'T do this.." So you end up with 15000 pages of legalize because companies are ALWAYS trying to get out of taxes. Not that they shouldn't, but what do you expect. Simplifying the tax code is never as easy as it sounds.

Re:Get ready everyone with anything

[jeremyp]

You miss the point the parent poster is making. If, as was suggested by GPP, tax is a flat rate on gross income, what constitutes a cost doesn't matter.

PP was making the point that if your business operates on smaller margins than the flat rate, it will not be able to pay its taxes, much less the shareholders.

Re:Get ready everyone with anything

[AmiMoJo]

Some European countries, including France, have an effective solution to loopholes. If there is any doubt or question, a court settles it based on an interpretation of the law that tries to maintain its spirit. If a company has a question they can ask the tax office for clarification, and even challenge their judgement in court, but if they decide to just start abusing that loophole and get found out later they are going to be on the hook for everything they owe.

It's a fair and workable system. Occasionally there are still ambiguities that need fixing, but as Google has discovered just pretending your sales happen in Ireland for tax purposes doesn't work.