Clear the past. Facebook has suffered a recovery of 106 million euros, for the years prior to 2018, told Figaro a spokesperson for Facebook, confirming information from Capital magazine. "We have entered into an agreement with the tax administration for the years 2009 - 2018, under which we will pay a payment of 106 million euros," explains the spokesperson for the group.
" This made the French subsidiary fall into the red, which posted a loss of 88 million euros, and negative equity of 70 million euros, according to its 2019 accounts ," says Capital. It is the conclusion of an eight-year-old dispute. In 2012, Facebook's offices were raided by the National Directorate of Tax Investigations and Customs, L'Express reported at the time.
For two years, Facebook France has changed its legal structure, assures its boss Laurent Solly. " We have no dispute, only a different from the past on which we are discussing with the French administration which dates from long before our change of structure, " he said last year to Le Parisien, ensuring that Facebook was now paying more taxes than before.
Change of tax structure
“Since 2018, we have changed our sales structure so that revenues from advertisers supported by our teams in France are recorded in this country, ” a Facebook spokesperson told Figaro. This year we are paying 8.46 million euros in income tax, an increase of almost 50% compared to last year. "
Previously, all Facebook activity in France was billed from Ireland, where corporate tax is reduced (12.5% instead of around 30% in France), allowing the social network to pay there. his taxes. Today, says Capital, the activity with large customers is now located in France.
" Result: the turnover declared in France rose from 56 to 747 million euros between 2017 and 2019 ", writes Capital. But the magazine estimates that Facebook's actual turnover in France is 1.3 billion euros, which would have allowed it to generate a margin of 500 million euros. What generate in normal times more than 100 million euros in taxes.
The Gafa tax
In an attempt to force the Gafa to pay more taxes in France, the government implemented a tax on digital giants, dubbed the Gafa tax, in 2019 ... before freezing it in 2020 under pressure from the United States. United. Strongly contested by Washington, it aimed to keep the pressure on the negotiations underway at the OECD to reform corporate tax at the global level. It brought in 350 million euros in 2019, against 500 million initially hoped for.
"We also want a tax reform and I am delighted that the OECD is working on it ," commented the founder and boss of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, in February 2020. We hope that the process underway at the OECD will succeed in order to to have a stable and reliable system in the future. And we accept that that could mean that we will have to pay more taxes and pay them in different places, in a new framework. ”