It is a
fiscal
“
mega recovery
” which is being prepared for Carlos Ghosn, according to
Liberation
.
According to the daily, the National Directorate for the Verification of Tax Situations (DNVSF) has been conducting an investigation since 2019 on the consequences of moving his tax residence to the Netherlands in 2012. Negotiations between the tax authorities and the lawyers of the former automobile boss are in class.
In the meantime, the administration has already proceeded with the seizure, as a precaution, of 13 million euros on property and bank accounts belonging to Carlos Ghosn and his wife Carole.
Read also: Carlos Ghosn, a fugitive in search of rehabilitation
In detail, the DNVSF requested the provisional mortgage of their Parisian apartment located on avenue Georges-Mandel in Paris, purchased 5.9 million euros in 2019. The same procedure was requested for half of a villa located in Etang-la-ville in Yvelines (the other half being held by the ex-wife of Carlos Ghosn) as well as for Renault debts and shares in the amount of nearly 500,000 euros.
Dubious move
The starting point of these investigations is therefore the decision taken in 2012 by the former boss of Renault to move his tax residence to Amsterdam, where RNBV is located, the company 50-50 owned by Renault and Nissan and whose purpose is to oversee the alliance.
Since that date, Carlos Ghosn has paid his taxes in the Netherlands on all his income, minus the amounts already paid to the French tax authorities and the Japanese tax authorities.
But the French tax authorities seem to consider that this move was fictitious.
The doubt relates to compliance with the rule of 183 days of residence per year, in force in the Netherlands.
For the administration, "
France was the center of its professional and family activity
", writes
Liberation
.
Consequently, the former boss should have continued to pay his taxes in France on all of his income, "
in compliance with the convention avoiding double taxation
", specifies the daily.
To read also: Jacques-Olivier Martin: “Swindler, Ghosn?
No, visionary… ”
Asked about this procedure on Monday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire kicked in touch.
“
The Minister of Finance does not intervene in any tax file.
The administration handles personal files independently.
Carlos Ghosn will be treated like any citizen, no more and no less,
”he told Franceinfo at the microphone.
For his part, Carlos Ghosn has repeatedly affirmed that his move in no way hid a desire to flee the French tax authorities.
“
In 2012, I said: 'I will change my residence from France to the Netherlands'.
Why?
We're coming out of the financial crisis and the tsunami that destroyed Japan in 2011. So I was going to focus on building the Alliance.
The best thing is that I position myself in Holland not as boss of Renault or boss of Nissan but as boss of the Alliance
”, he explained during an interview with BFMTV there. a month
.
"
Every year, I paid my taxes in France on my income in France and I learned in 2019, in prison, that the file of tax residence is reopened
", he then indignant.
Criminal investigations
While waiting to be fixed on the tax aspect, Carlos Ghosn will have to face the judges who will come to question him in January in Beirut as part of two criminal investigations.
The first, opened by the national financial prosecutor's office, concerns contracts entered into by RNBV when Carlos Ghosn was still CEO of the automotive group.
Rachida Dati, but also the criminologist Alain Bauer, are cited there.
The second is led by the Nanterre prosecutor's office and covers two aspects: one for fund transfers between Nissan and the Sultanate of Oman which could have benefited it, and the other for the financing of birthday parties and wedding at the Palace of Versailles.
In Japan, Carlos Ghosn must also face Nissan, which claims about 80 million euros in damages.
