French Tax Investigators Raid Google's French Headquarters
May 24 2016 - 9:47AM
Dow Jones News
By Sam Schechner
PARIS--Dozens of tax investigators swept into Google's French
headquarters on Tuesday, part of a continuing probe into alleged
tax evasion by the Internet giant, prosecutors said.
The raid comes as part of a newly disclosed 2015 probe by
France's tax prosecutors into aggravated tax evasion by the
company, now a part of Alphabet Inc.
Prosecutors say they were acting on a complaint from France's
tax authority, which has for years been locked in a battle with
Google, demanding back taxes and fines of more than 1 billion euros
($1.12 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.
"We are cooperating with the authorities to answer their
questions. We comply fully with French law," a Google spokesman
said.
At issue in the French case is whether Google, which collects
the vast majority of its revenue from European clients at its Irish
unit, does more business in France with French clients than it has
declared.
Google's French arm employs hundreds of salespeople and
programmers, but revenue comes from Google's other units to cover
its costs, according to financial filings.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 24, 2016 09:32 ET (13:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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