Corporate tax dodges in France. Public anger ha
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Public anger has been mounting for years as details
have emerged showing how multinational companies
use complicated structures to dodge taxes in some countries.
European officials are becoming more aggressive in pursuing corporate tax investigations and have already gone after a number of other big American companies, including Starbucks (SBUX), Fiat Chrysler (FCAM), Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Amazon (AMZN, Tech30).
Google's European headquarters are in Ireland, which has one of the lowest rates of corporate tax in Europe. British lawmakers have accused Google of funneling most of its European profits through the country to avoid paying tax in other nations.
The French government reportedly believes that Google owes it €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) in unpaid taxes.
It's common for multinationals to base themselves in low tax countries, such as Ireland or Luxembourg. But the European Union is working to crack down on this practice to ensure companies pay tax where they make their profits. ]Police raided the French offices of Google (GOOGL, Tech30)
and McDonald's (MCD) this month as part of investigations into
tax avoidance. Michel Sapin, the finance minister, said more
cases could follow.
Google's European headquarters are in Ireland, which has one of the lowest rates of corporate tax in Europe. British lawmakers have accused Google of funneling most of its European profits through the country to avoid paying tax in other nations.
The French government reportedly believes that Google owes it €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) in unpaid taxes.
It's common for multinationals to base themselves in low tax countries, such as Ireland or Luxembourg. But the European Union is working to crack down on this practice to ensure companies pay tax where they make their profits.