from Hacker News

Google's Paris HQ raided in tax probe

by vmarovic on 5/24/16, 12:05 PM with 246 comments

by ersii on 5/24/16, 2:17 PM
"Several have been accused of using legal methods to minimise their tax bills."
Since when is it illegal to follow the law? Sure, we all have different opinions on the legal gray areas and of whether certain or all laws are legitimate and to what extent - but come on, that quote is just ridiculous.
by kafkaesq on 5/24/16, 7:51 PM
The BBC article didn't explain why the raids were conducted (mostly likely because it wasn't yet known at the time). Meanwhile, Le Parisien (which appears to have broken the story) has come forward with more details, which have since been translated by other outlets, e.g.:
France’s financial prosecutor’s office said the raids were carried out with the assistance of the police anti-corruption unit and 25 information technology experts. French daily Le Parisien, which first reported the news, said the raid took place at dawn and involved some 100 investigators. Officers were still at the scene Tuesday afternoon.
“These searches are the result of a preliminary investigation opened on June 16, 2015 relative to aggravated tax fraud and organized money laundering following a complaint from French fiscal authorities,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The investigation is aimed at finding out whether Google Ireland Ltd. is permanently established in France and if, by not declaring some of its activity on French soil, it has failed to meet its fiscal obligations, in particular with regard to corporation tax and value added tax.”
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/24/french-police-ra...
by ChuckMcM on 5/24/16, 5:18 PM
As others have pointed out this can happen in France given the way in which laws are prosecuted, my sister lives there part time and really likes this aspect of the country.
That said, its really interesting to watch such powerful interests dance around (in a more general sense) shooting each other. The whole scheme which companies like Apple, Google, others use to "legitimately" minimize their tax burden and the financial pressure being put on the people of the EU by the immigration situation and general financial mismanagement, has really created a fascinating pressure vector.
The pressure point is this; If these companies paid their "fair" taxes in the countries where they do business, then there would be extra tax money to support the government obligations and less need for austerity programs.
Interesting times.
by criddell on 5/24/16, 2:50 PM
What's the purpose of the raid? To seize file cabinets filled with documents? Wouldn't a company like Google have most of their documents in the cloud?
by Isamu on 5/24/16, 2:16 PM
"Several have been accused of using legal methods to minimise their tax bills."
I don't see this ending well.
by 6stringmerc on 5/24/16, 2:30 PM
Hopefully one outcome of this undertaking will be some clarity - does Google sufficiently use legal methods? If so, this raid might be more show and a "fishing expedition" than genuinely deployed based on cause. However, if there was sufficient evidence to justify such a raid, then I will be interested to read the findings by the French authorities. Discussing tax reform is about as contentious as discussing IP/copyright reform, in that unless major global players get consistent, then it's just too entrenched to disrupt I think.
Personally I'd like to see both avenues get shaken up but it's sort of questionable in the long-term, as I see both the "big authorities" and "big players" as having a lot of political overlap and influence. Basically minimize until it goes away (or causes such rot the host dies).
by curiousgal on 5/24/16, 5:47 PM
>Several have been accused of using legal methods to minimise their tax bills.
What a terrible accusation. Good to know the whole world needs some serious tax reform.
by dmfdmf on 5/24/16, 3:54 PM
When asked by a reporter why the tax agents raided Google he replied "Because that's were the money is".
by te_chris on 5/24/16, 2:19 PM
Good. The way multinationals are allowed to take the resources of the various nation states they operate in while contributing nothing themselves, yet still claiming to be 'people' and demanding all sorts of rights, is beyond the joke. Before anyone says it, yes I'm aware they pay GST/VAT/PAYE etc, but if I have to pay company tax, why don't they?
by bunkydoo on 5/24/16, 7:31 PM
Ouch. Part of me thinks the French government would allow this to happen due to them being non-compliant with that 'right to be forgotten' request.
by tyingq on 5/24/16, 2:15 PM
Experiencing a little schadenfreude. Some karma in the idea that an overarching organization will "crawl" Google's "content" and then potentially take an action that will affect their bottom line.
Maybe the tax officials should offer Google a chance to "disavow" some of their book entries :)
by 0xFFC on 5/24/16, 2:44 PM
Idk, but I feel Google is under tremendous pressure right now.Oracle likely going to win (they have best legal team in whole industry). Europe will hit Google with antitrust and now this.Microsot is coming for them, and they(Microsoft) positioned themselves very well.
Maybe I don't realize correctly, but it seems Google is going to have hard time with all of this.