Facebook announced Monday that it had reached a tax agreement with the French government on a reassessment of 106 million euros in corporate tax for its subsidiary Facebook France over the period 2009-2018. For the year 2019, Facebook France paid 8.46 million euros in corporation tax, an increase "of nearly 50% compared to last year", said in a statement the American giant , which confirmed information from Capital.fr.
"We take our tax obligations seriously"
"We take our tax obligations seriously, pay the taxes we owe in all the markets in which we operate and work closely with tax administrations around the world to ensure compliance with all applicable tax laws and resolve any disputes," Facebook said in its statement.
The Ministry of Public Accounts does not comment
Asked by AFP, the Ministry of Public Accounts declined to comment, taking refuge behind tax secrecy. The taxation of American digital giants is a recurring subject of contention between France and these companies, supported by the American government. France considers that the amounts of taxes paid by these behemoths in the countries where they are present often prove to be far too low compared to their real economic weight.
The French Parliament definitively adopted on July 11, 2019 the introduction of a tax on digital giants, making France a pioneer country in this area. But the United States has announced retaliatory measures following this French initiative.
Negotiations are underway at the OECD for an international agreement on the subject.