INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

France’s Finance Minister Demands That Google Pays Fair Share Of Taxes

By Timothy Raymond
Published on: 04:54 PST, May 30, 2016

France is stepping up to the challenge against Google and other larger corporations within its country. Putting his foot down, Finance Minister Michael Sapin nearly demanded that Google comes up with their fair share of taxes that they owe the country.

According to CNN Money earlier in the month, Google was subjected to a French police raid due to the company allegedly avoiding their duties to pay taxes. Perhaps Google is just the start as France begins to buckle down against tax avoidance.

It also doesn’t appear that France is in any mood for negotiations or talks with Google. They mean business and plan on following the full course of the law. Google won’t be able to settle any amount they owe and will be forced to pay the full amount. However, this raid began just a few days apart from Google being crowned wealthier than Apple once again. You can read about Google on the Inquisitr, which was covered not too long ago.

The minister was quoted as saying, “We don’t do deals like Britain, we apply the law.”

It appears that Sapin was referring to earlier this year when Google settled to pay £130 million ($190 million) to cover unpaid taxes, according to Reuters, which resulted in their being audited by the British tax authorities.

Unfortunately, that ordeal caused a lot of grief for Britain, as many of the citizens residing there felt that Google got off rather easy compared to smaller businesses when the money was broken down into proportion.

Google, of course, isn’t the only offender located within Europe in regards to tax evasion. However, the fact that Google is so well known throughout the world could be why France is attempting to make an example of Google. The fact that this isn’t the first Google case within Europe obviously doesn’t help Google either. All of this adds resentment towards Google by the citizens of Europe, as they feel everyone should be treated equally.

Even though it may look like Google is being the only company targeted, that is not so. Cases are being launched against other American companies as well, such as Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple, among others.

The European Google headquarters is located in Ireland, and according to Forbes, Ireland has the lowest corporate tax rates in all of Europe. That may sound like a genius idea, placing your headquarters there, but unfortunately for Google, that is only intensifying the allegations against them. The British tax authorities are further accusing Google of porting their money from Europe into the Irish headquarters and evading the taxes from other cities.

The French Finance department is estimating that Google currently owes just shy of $2 billion in unpaid taxes. It’s unclear if this includes any fees or fines.

Although it is rather unethical, it is becoming a public practice of multinationals, including Google, to strategically plant themselves in countries with lower tax rates. However, the EU is working rather diligently to ensure that companies pay the proper taxes to the proper cities where it is earned, instead of just where their headquarters are located.

Last year, the International Business Times covered a story where they looked into U.S. tax evasion cases, with Apple and other companies (however, not including Google) being involved. Hopefully, the European countries do understand that it isn’t just with them, but these same companies do it in the United States also, and many times it isn’t on purpose. It can be affected by the bookkeepers and management without even knowing it. One thing can be inferred from this ordeal and that is that Google will understand that they have to keep better track of their taxes and paperwork.

[Photo by Jacques Brinon/AP Images]

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