Google Is Paying 945 Million Euro to End a Tax Dispute in France

The US Internet giant Google has agreed a deal worth a total of $ 945 million ($ 1.0 billion) to end a tax dispute in France, according to an agreement announced in court Thursday. The company will pay a € 500 million tax evasion fine, as well as a further € 465 million in claims settlement with the French tax authorities.

In a statement, Google confirmed the agreement and welcomed the fact that it put an end to the fiscal differences it has had with France for many years, according to BGNES.

The agreement follows similar out-of-court agreements reached in Italy and the United Kingdom by Google in recent years, although the French agreement is much larger than the previous ones.

Google said they now want to see a coordinated reform of a clear international tax framework.

The agreement came at a time when France and its European allies are seeking to find common ground with the US in a longstanding tax dispute over digital giants.

Google, like several other major US technology companies, has a European headquarters in Ireland, where the government has set a corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent in an effort to attract large companies.

Leading EU countries like France, however, argue that this allows tech giants to avoid paying sufficient taxes on the huge profits and sales of internet giants that accumulate in major countries without their headquarters in those countries.

The Google investigation in France was first launched by anti-fraud prosecutors in 2015 and was followed by searches at the headquarters in Paris in 2016, a code-named operation called Tulip, which mobilized one hundred police officers and experts.

In 2016, Google paid 130 million pounds in agreement with the British authorities and in 2017 agreed to pay 306 million euros to settle a tax dispute in Italy.

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