Unlike British tax authorities, who allowed Google to pay £130m in back taxes, France has ruled out any similar deals with the internet giant.
Michel Sapin, the French Finance Minister has said;
“French tax authorities do not negotiate the amount of taxes owed, there is a discussion underway about which rules apply, that’s perfectly legitimate,”
The tax deal made with Google in Britain was subject to controversy, with the director of the campaign group Tax Research, Richard Murphy saying;
“We are claiming back a tiny extra proportion [of what Google has underpaid], way short of any reasonable amount of tax. It looks as though Google has got a great deal, it must be laughing all the way to its Bermudan bank.”
Margaret Hodgean, an ardent critic of tax avoiding firms during her time as chair of the public accounts committee, has called this tax deal as “devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical”.
