Friday, October 18, 2013

New report: France loses 60-80 billion Euros annually to tax evasion

From a new report to France's National Assembly, following an international consultation that was broad enough to include both TJN and Swiss bank lobbyists. Tax News summarises:
"According to deputies Alain Bocquet and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, tax evasion leads to an annual revenue shortfall for France estimated at between EUR60bn (USD81.4bn) and EUR80bn. This figure compares to the EUR53bn in total income anticipated from corporation tax (IS) this year."
With, among a multitude of other things, an image illustrating tax losses to U.S. multinationals operating in France:


Click to enlarge. By way of explanation, it cites a study estimating that:
"The five internet multinationals Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft saw their taxes in France divided by 22: that is, 37.5 million Euros, versus 828.9 million Euros."
It correctly notes that these figures are not official and should be treated with some caution (after all, there are various possible ways to argue what a company's taxes 'should' be) but also argues, also correctly, that the study is illustrative of a very severe problem.
Why is the tax burden on households so high, the report's authors note, while "60 rogue states are trying to suck away the world's wealth"?

The report also provides a nice and simple transfer pricing picture, giving a general idea of how some of this tax escape is achieved:




Update 2014: for resources and information on Corporate Tax see here, and on Transfer Pricing see here.



1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you comfortable publishing this? By summarising you seem to be accusing Microsoft and others of tax evasion. Do you really want that legal bill?

1:58 am  

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