The new risk of bad luck for former Whirlpool employees in Amiens. A year after the relocation of the dryer production plant to Poland, which left 286 employees on the floor, official documents show that the former site has benefited from substantial tax rebates when paying two taxes. Rebates that amount to 370,000 euros between 2017 and 2018, according to France Bleu Picardie, which reveals the information.
For the payment of its property tax, the world leader in household appliances obtained in 2017 a tax exemption of 167,778 euros out of the 497,504 euros due to French taxes. A "fairly common" practice according to a tax lawyer.
To do this, the Whirlpool group called on a specialized firm in the Paris region. He examined the company's property declarations and then raised everything that could be deducted from taxes. This firm also received 64,426 euros for its service, ie 32% of the amount of the exemption.
The documents also reveal that the US group benefited in 2018 from a significant exemption for the payment of the cessation tax. While he had to pay the sum of 355.112 euros before relocating his factory, Whirlpool has paid only half to the department of litigation of the tax center, or 207.151 euros. The company would have paid this tax in early 2018 and, when the closure of the site of Amiens at least June, would have asked to be reimbursed for the last seven months of the year. The tax authorities and the company did not wish to speak on this subject.
"I find that a little unfair"
If these steps are completely legal, they cringe the teeth of former employees of the site Amiens. "Where is the moral?", Indignant a former Steward of Whirlpool Amiens. If he is "not surprised," Patrice Sinoquet, former secretary of Whirlpool's Health and Safety Committee (CHSCT), "finds this a little unfair". "I would have preferred to see that money slip into the fund of reclassification leave or whatever."
For his part, Fyodor Rilov, the lawyer of a large part of former Whirlpool employees, is not surprised by these tax arrangements, which he describes as "arrangements with the tax authorities". He points out that if they shock, they "only represent the tip of the iceberg".