France 'to go all the way' to make multinationals pay their taxes

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Source: Reuters

Sunday 29 May 2016 13.48 BST

France will “go all the way” to ensure multinationals operating on its soil pay their taxes while more cases could follow after Google and McDonald’s were targeted in tax raids, the finance minister, Michel Sapin, has said.

Sapin also ruled out negotiating a deal with Google on back taxes, as Britain did in January. “We’ll go all the way. There could be other cases,” Sapin said.

Dozens of French police raided Google’s Paris headquarters on Tuesday, prompting an investigation on suspicions of tax evasion. Tax investigators searched McDonald’s French headquarters on 18 May.

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Google, McDonald’s and other multinational firms such as Starbucks are under increasing pressure in Europe from public opinion and governments angry at the way businesses exploit their international presence to minimise the tax they pay.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/29/france-multinationals-pay-taxes-michel-sapin-google-mcdonalds