France vs Google

As I am sure we are all aware, Google are notoriously bad at paying their taxes! In fact, in 2014 they paid France just 5 million Euros in tax from their 225.4 million Euro revenue. Something doesn’t quite add up there!

Well, France are not taking it, and are turning up the heat in the tax war against the technology giants. An early-morning raid by 25 data experts was carried out on Google’s Paris office at the end of May. This raid was part of a much larger ongoing investigation into Google’s tax affairs in an attempt to crack down on their aggressive tax avoidance schemes. A previous raid was carried out in 2011 as part of an investigation similar to the one going on now.

It is reported that France is aiming to claim back 1.6 billion Euros in backdated tax, starting from 2005. It is not only France who has issues with Google: Italy, Australia and the UK have all previously argued with them about the dismal tax payments they make in relation to their huge profits.

It is a hard fight to take on against such a large corporation, so kudos to France for persevering. Let’s hope they are successful in ensuring the tax that is due, is paid. ν