“As for France, there is a delay in the payment of taxes 1,600 million euros,” he said the source consulted by AFP revealing for the first time the amount Google due to the French treasury. The Ministry of Finance did not want to comment on the figure by invoking the “tax secrecy”.
The figure comes to light coinciding with the visit to Paris of President of Google, Sundar Pichai where Wednesday met with Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron. “We are a global group and respect the tax laws in all countries,” he said in a lecture at the prestigious Institute of Political Sciences of the French capital.
The French administration has already announced in early February it will not negotiate with Google as did the British government. The sum of 1.600 billion outpaces announced by the press weeks ago that evoked 500 million euros and ten times higher than that achieved the British treasury, 172 million euros. The head of French Finance said that will not follow the British strategy. “We do not wish in any way to establish an emergency situation,” said Michel Sapin.
Google also has a dispute with the Italian tax authorities claim that 200 million euros. The American company has its European headquarters in Ireland, a country with one of the lowest tax systems to EU companies. The French branch of Google is in Paris and employs 700 people. In 2014 he earned a profit of 12.2 million euros.
Europe accuses Google of unfair competition
It is expected that this Thursday Sundar Pichai meets in Brussels with the European Commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager. For years, the EU investigates Google abuse by dominant online searches. So far, the proposals made by the Internet giant have not convinced the European authorities.
In particular, the Commission accuses Google to promote their own price comparison service from their own pages, to the detriment of competitors such as Kelkoo. If no agreement is reached, the company faces a fine of several thousand million. (AFP)
No comments:
Post a Comment