French authorities raided Google’s Paris headquarters early morning early morning on Tuesday, with representatives from France’s financial prosecutors office, combined with the country’s office against financial corruption and fraud on 5am. The US search engine giant is being accused of evading French taxes; with similar claims also having surfaced against the company in the past as well.
Google’s headquarters in France operate as a subsidiary of Google Ireland Ltd.with the French looking to establish its permanent presence in the country. The search engine giant’s primary European headquarters are based in Dublin, which with its 12.5% tax rate helps Google save quite a bit in taxes.
Google claims that its offices in countries including France, Britain and more merely serve as subsidiaries of Google Ireland Ltd. and do not perform permanent revenue based operations in the respective territories. The company’s headquarters in France employ more than 700 in staff and paid €5m in taxes two years back.
