Accused of inaction by the opposition on the McKinsey accounts case, Bercy defends himself.
Thursday morning, on FranceInfo, Bruno Le Maire soberly commented on the announcement of the opening of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) from March 31: "
it is the role of justice to seize cases that she feels she needs to take up
,” he said.
A few hours earlier, Emmanuel Macron said he found "
very good that the judge, the tax auditors take up a case when it is said that a company has defrauded
".
Read alsoHow the consulting firm McKinsey would have escaped corporate tax in France
If the PNF is investigating the "
tax status
" of the consulting firm in France, Bruno Le Maire wanted to defend the role of the tax administration in this case, recalling that the tax authorities had been working on the company's accounts for several months. .
"
The tax administration [...] initiated a tax audit on the McKinsey firm last November, before the senators produced their report
," he said.
Until now, the executive spoke rather of "
end of 2021
" as the start date of the work of the DGFIP.
“
Let it not be said that the tax administration would not do its job
“, annoyed the boss of Bercy, recalling the previous Google, when a showdown had begun between the digital giant and the tax authorities.
Since late March, several politicians have pointed to the lack of response from tax officials, while the firm has not paid corporate tax for at least ten years, according to the Senate report.
“
How is it that despite the dubious practices of the American consulting firm close to Emmanuel Macron, the tax authorities saw nothing?
“asked Gilbert Collard, close to Eric Zemmour.
"
No action from the tax authorities
", lashed out, meanwhile, LFI MEP Manon Aubry.
For his part, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, put forward as an element of explanation the fact "
that on average, a company is audited every twelve years
".
In addition, there was no evidence that the firm was in an illegal situation: "
the fact of not paying corporation tax is not systematically linked to fraud
", recalled the minister.
“Bad faith”
Bruno Le Maire also remained cautious about the tax situation of the consulting firm.
"
I do not know if he does not pay tax, we have a doubt
", he qualified, recalling that the object of the work of the agents of the tax administration was precisely to draw the true from the false .
Behind, "
McKinsey will pay all they owe as tax to the French public treasury
", repeated the minister.
On Wednesday, the firm repeated that it respected "
the French tax and social rules applicable to it
" and that its approach was known to the tax authorities.
On the merits of the case, Bruno Le Maire said he wanted to "
check if there is no way to employ less
" these consulting firms.
He also criticized the “
bad faith
” of the opposition “
which falls on us
” when they themselves used these same firms massively when they were local leaders.