Google Spared $1.3 Billion Tax Bill With Victory in French Court

Bloomberg reports that Google won its fight against a $1.3 billion tax bill in France (beware of auto-start video). The French Administrative Court of Paris sided with Google after claims of the company abusing tax loopholes by routing sales out of its European headquarters in Ireland. A statement released by the company confirms that "Google abides by French tax law and international standards." Judges ruled that their wasn't a significant presence established in the country as Google France's employees still needed approval from the Irish headquarters. Hopefully, Google uses those tax savings and expands broadband access here in the United States, a country it already pays taxes to like Microsoft.


Authorities across the continent have been trying to claim a slice of the billions of dollars of profits Google's owners kept out of their grasp using techniques known as the Double Irish and the Dutch Sandwich. To end a dispute spanning 14 years, it recently struck a 306 million-euro settlement with Italian tax authorities.

Well, the EU says companies have to pay taxes on EU operations at the corporate tax rate set by the nation the company puts its HQ in; even the dumbest accountant in the world would tell you that would cause companies to move their headquarters to whoever offers the best deal. That is similar to how in the United States many companies are chartered in states with low corporate taxes, like Delaware. If the countries in the EU want more in corporate taxes, they should work to amend those rules, maybe adding in a minimum allowed tax rate, like they do with the VAT - every Eurozone has to charge at least 15% for its VAT, IIRC.

Either that or release that corporate taxes are dumb anyways, and should be replaced with higher income/dividend/capital gains taxes in the higher tax brackets. Corporate profits are best reinvested in whatever the corporation is doing; if the corporation doesn't have anything useful to invest in, it should pay out dividends, and the shareholders can pay income tax on that.

Gee why is it based in ireland
Gee why are all the usa credit card companies lumped within 100 miles of each other
Gee why is tiger direct only in Florida

Its the EU, if you want to fix it, you have to make it were it doesnt matter where you are located at in the EU, for EU taxes.

Time to bugfix this god damn loophole.

The French Administrative Court of Paris members seen driving away in new Bugattis.

nightanole said:

Gee why is it based in ireland
Gee why are all the usa credit card companies lumped within 100 miles of each other
Gee why is tiger direct only in Florida

Its the EU, if you want to fix it, you have to make it were it doesnt matter where you are located at in the EU, for EU taxes.

Click to expand...

Same thing in the USA, where are most LLCs registered? Human nature to look for the best for their situation.

Also these "savings" have no impact on USA branch as when this money is moved into the states it will be taxed. This is the same situation as Apple with their billions and billions that are just idling overseas.