Google To Pay $1 Billion in France To Settle Fiscal Fraud Probe (reuters.com) 41
Google agreed to pay close to 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) to French authorities to settle a fiscal fraud probe that began four years ago in a deal that may create a legal precedent for other large tech companies present in the country. From a report: French investigators have been seeking to establish whether Google, whose European headquarters are based in Dublin, failed to pay its dues to the state by avoiding to declare parts of its activities in the country. The settlement comprises a fine of 500 million euros and additional taxes of 465 million euros, Google said in a statement. Google, part of Alphabet, pays little tax in most European countries because it reports almost all sales in Ireland. This is possible thanks to a loophole in international tax law but it hinges on staff in Dublin concluding all sales contracts.
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yup, the Paris office will be gone if this keeps up I'd imagine. Or the EU business will splice off to a shell company with lower liability
Re: In otherwords. (Score:2)
On the internet, you buy ads. If I operate a site in a country (A), and a citizen of country (B) wants adds shown to visitors from B, that doesn't mean I owe taxes to country B.
Google is more complex, because it has operations in those tax localities. If it were a physical good, then Sales tax applies if you "have presence". I suspect in some countries, google will simply close those positions. It's smarter business if the tax laws come costing you more money for not better reason than "pay us because you a
Re: In otherwords. (Score:2)
I don't understand why they haven't already left France, and I'm not even thinking of taxation as a reason. France wants Google to enforce its right to be forgotten laws globally, or at least, anywhere that a French citizen can access them.
So other countries can either start banning internet access to French citizens, or Google (and other tech companies) can just pull out of France.
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Giggity.
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Google didn't leave France, because they will still make money with them. And France is a major EU player.
I would expect Google to fight regulations that makes their job harder, however if they can't win that fight, they might as well either pay the fine, or comply. Just as long as France gives them value they will deal with it.
Re: In otherwords. (Score:1)
Complying doesn't mean a financial loss in this case, it means censorship. And Google doesn't necessarily have to have a presence in France to make money in France.
Hell, I could easily make money in France without ever leaving Arizona. All I'd have to do is pay a very hairy couple to do a porno shoot. So long as they haven't already seen those particular pubes before, they'll surely pay to see it!
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Re:In otherwords. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's Google who found a loophole in the law to avoid paying taxes. Not France. France is only getting (part of) its due here. And Google agrees, otherwise they wouldn't be paying.
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Keep in mind, this is totally legit behavior for a Nation. If you want to do business there you have to obey the laws.
My gripe is that I doubt the citizens will see restitution for the wrongs done to them by Google while the government gets to make a little bank.
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Re: In otherwords. (Score:1)
Lol and oh so wrong.
Give it to the people and they would spend it where they thought it made the most sense. If they didn't had health care and education and housing and food through society possibly there.
Giving the money to the government and politicians guarantees not all of it will be spent where you'd want it spent.
Re:In otherwords. (Score:4, Informative)
My gripe is that I doubt the citizens will see restitution for the wrongs done to them by Google while the government gets to make a little bank.
You haven't read TFS haven't you? This is about Google not paying taxes. Not about privacy violation or anything else. In this particular case, Google has done no harm to the citizens of France. They only didn't pay their taxes. The only way to make that right was for Google to pay and this is what they will be doing.
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Loophole in the law..in other words following the law. Google "agrees" because France is a government and can pretty much do what they want if Google wants to continue doing business in France. More thank likely this is a retcon on French tax law to get money out of Google.
Are you saying France retroactively changed its law to grab cash from Google? I don't think so. France is following the law and that's why they investigated Google and ended-up fining Google.
Google didn't follow the French law and that's why they have to pay now. Just like I have to pay if I go too fast on the highway (and get cut). Google got cut.
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Loophole in the law
I want a loophole too! I work in Germany and pay taxes there. I think a good strategy would be:
1) Found an IT consultancy corporation in Ireland. It is owned by me.
2) The company hires me for a salary of 1 Euro cent per month.
3) I pay taxes in Germany for 1 Euro cent per month income.
4) My company in Ireland charges market rates for my work to my employer.
5) My company pays low Irish taxes instead of high German taxes.
6) See y'all in the French Riviera!
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What you have to realize is that corporations don't pay taxes. They're a paper entity and pass thru all their net finances (usually profit) to the owners and employees (and customers as higher prices if there are losses). A tax is shifting a chunk of productivity from the people's control to the government's control. The corporation itself doesn't do anything. It can't think or act
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Re: In otherwords. (Score:2)
A billion would pay for enough lawyers to prove they didn't do it. The way small-government people are constantly kicked off their platforms it's no secret that they like the big boot just fine, so they may just be happy to pay it and stay in the French market.
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Sounds like a perfectly normal transaction, strictly business.
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France just wants Google's money.
Well yes, that's kind of how taxes work. Governments typically want money.
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Good ole fuck them on your behalf (Score:2)
It's nice to see that the French Government gets to enrich themselves on the wrongs done to the citizens.
I wonder if any of the citizens that got fucked in France get to see a paycheck?
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That's so cute of you to think that this moneygrab would ever benefit the wronged. I'll bet you are beginning to suspect that Santa Claus may not be real.
Re:Good ole fuck them on your behalf (Score:4, Insightful)
It's nice to see that the French Government gets to enrich themselves on the wrongs done to the citizens.
Google wronged the French citizens by not paying the taxes they owed. Now the French citizens aren't getting shorted over a billion dollars in tax-supported services.
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It's nice to see that the French Government gets to enrich themselves on the wrongs done to the citizens.
I wonder if any of the citizens that got fucked in France get to see a paycheck?
That's not why they levied that fine but I can see how it might seem that way if you arre watching this from the US where your government is chosen from the elite, by the people to serve the interests of corporations and plutocrats to the detriment of the people.
Re: Good ole fuck them on your behalf (Score:1)
If they got fucked by having to pay more taxes or getting less service and funding from the government then yes this will likely compensate for that.
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I wonder if any of the citizens that got fucked in France get to see a paycheck?
Unlike the USA many European countries actually invest in things that benefit their citizens. e.g. infrastructure.
Re:Protectionism for me but not for thee (Score:4, Informative)
It's odd, downright weird even, how Europeans complain all the time about American barriers to trade and favoritism, and yet they are quick to fine American companies huge amounts for complying with the laws they themselves set up.
The difference is that in Europe, the law applies in the same way to everyone. In the US, government agencies and kangaroo courts have a lot of liberty to hinder foreign competition and they often use it.
EU maintains a 10 percent tariff on imported automobiles and parts.
Only from countries the EU does not have a trade agreement with. It's 0% for most countries with a sizeable car industry. For comparison, the US levies a 25% tariff on 'light trucks', which it considers to include vans, pickups and even SUVs. The EU has been trying to get the US to accept a 0% tariff both ways for all cars, lorries and automotive components for years, but the US refuses.
They subsidize Airbus, while Boeing is a private company.
Unlike Airbus, Boeing is subsidised by pork barrel contracts for the US military. Airbus received some favourable investment loans in the past, but it is nothing compaired to what Boeing receives in free money from US taxpayers. Moreover, the US strongarms countries into buying US aircraft and uses its industrial espionage network to give Boeing and other US companies unfair advantages in negotiations.
It's just weird that on one hand, protectionism is wrong when the Americans do it, but then suddenly it's OK when it comes to European industries?
To be fair, US protectionism is a couple of orders of magnitude worse than protectionism in EU countries and the US is currently waging a quickly escalating trade war against most of the rest of the world. The SPD plan cited is very mild compared to what the US has been doing for decades. Moreover, it is unlikely that it will go through. Other coalition parties are much more reluctant to state intervention.
Pocket Change (Score:1)
Fines are supposed to be significant enough to discourage future malevolence. $1B is literally dryer lint to Google.
The world's justice systems are irretrievably broken when it comes to punishing bad corporate actors (and bad individual actors too).
It's bad enough that driving while black is such a crime, but when a speeding ticket costs a driver living below the poverty line the same $100 that it costs the multi-billionaire, it betrays the inequality of justice baked into the system.
Fines for any transgres
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Wonder which EU government/entity (Score:2)
Funny how all this settlement/compensation money just disappears in to the bowels of government never to be traced, tracked or heard of again.
Just my 2 cents
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Don't want to get fined? Don't break the law. You'd think all the super intelligent techie types in Silicon Valley could work this out.