The French government may claim Google for 1 billion euros

In France, Google is not the best of times. The government of this country sided with the French media, which are demanding money from the Corporation of Good for the right to work with materials from newspapers and magazines that go to Google News. In this case, the situation is becoming more serious. After both the French government and the media realized that the corporation would not pay, the tax authorities of this country took up the investigation of the company's financial schemes.

And there is something to take up. The fact is that Google in Europe, like many other companies, use quite interesting schemes to “optimize” financial flows. Offshore companies are involved in such schemes, which allows companies to save money without paying taxes in full. Nothing illegal, but all the same, the French tax authorities are unhappy. After all, millions of dollars are not reaching the country's budget, which would be useful to France now.
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The weekly publication Canard Enchain has published an article claiming that now the French government is about to file a Google tax claim worth about a billion euros. This is a sizeable amount even for such a large company as Google. At the same time, the official authorities do not comment on these rumors, but they do not refute either.

It is worth noting that Google first heard about tax claims at a meeting with the current President of France. Let me remind you that at that meeting Eric Schmidt was present, who went to France to clear up the mess with news and taxes. The French president said that if the media problem is not resolved by the end of the year, the French government will have complaints about the corporation.

Well, the essence of the claims already described above - this is 1 billion euros. So either pay the media (and it is not yet clear what amount this is about), or pay the French tax authorities 1 billion. It is worth noting that losing France as a market for a corporation is unprofitable. Last year, Google earned in this country from 1.25 to 1.4 billion euros. And taxes were paid only 5 million euros. Actually, it’s not surprising that the French tax authorities have any questions.

Via afp