Google Paris Offices Raided by French Police in Tax Fraud Probe

“Google” : When ever you want to get information about anything then you should “Google” it over internet. Since from 2015, Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. with its headquarter in Googleplex, Mountain View, California, US. Services that Google offers are Smart Phones, Media Players, Computer Hardware & Software, Internet Based Products, Operating Systems, Google Search Engine, G-mail, Google Drive, Google Alerts, Google Books, Google Image Finder, Google Map, Google Translation, Google AdSense, Google Apps, Mobile & Computer Applications etc.

Google is a big brand name and apart from royal things it also has controversies associated with it. The recent controversy is a Tax Fraud Probe in Paris, France. In this case the first thing came into light is, 100 French Police launched a raid at Google’s Paris Headquarter for the investigation of tax fraud and money laundering 1.2 billion euros. After the news that Google owes around 1.6 billion euros in back taxes French Police came in action and searched the headquarter of Google for further proceedings. There are many companies which pays low tax amount by shifting their revenue collections, Google also is one of them.

There was a complete team of 5 Magistrates, 25 Computer Technology Experts, 100 Tax Expert Officials and 100 French Police Officers who entered the Google Office at about 5 AM to bring out the truth of this aggravated tax fraud & money laundering. French government said that Google is owing the French government £1.2 billion tax amount. This raid is seen as an attempt to crack down at big businesses which are avoiding tax, with giant tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Fiat, etc. The team was there till night to find out all truth about the fact “if Google Ireland had failed its Financial Obligations in France”. It is also expected that this raid will further go to Britain’s “sweetheart” tax deal with tech giant investigation.

Form the Google side spokesperson said that Google Staff is cooperating the team as they always do their business in the limits of French Legislation. In addition with the spokesperson Mr Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) also defended Google by saying “We are a global company. We have to abide by tax laws everywhere, we do abide by local tax laws in every single country. We are advocating strongly for a simpler global tax system”. It is also notable that Google agreed to pay £ 130 million to cover back taxes in Britain but France Government has ruled out this tax amount negotiation deal with Google, but a source from the Tax Department said that negotiations may be possible in future. It means there will be appeals and finally may be a negotiation on the penalties.

In addition with France, Italy also demanding over €200 million from Google in an old tax fraud case. It is known that Google has a web to save tax on earnings. Google manages its subsidiary companies to cut the amount of its tax bill all over across the globe. In this approach Google moved its headquarters to Ireland in 2008 because this country has lower tax rate on profits. One more trick to save tax is that Google sales are not technically made in UK, thus when any British Company buy Google Product for UK then Google pays little tax amount to UK Treasury. By having these tax saving strategies Google pays most part of its tax in America, but that tax is only on its American Profits.

Although there are many tricks to save Tax and Google is a big brand name but if there is any truth in the case of Tax Fraud then Google will have to face many problems and will have to pay the Tax Amount too.