French authorities have raided Google’s Paris headquarters as part of an investigation into possible tax fraud.
Dozens of French tax officials entered the search giant’s offices on Gare Saint-Lazare in the ninth arrondissement at 05:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Tuesday morning, according to le Parisien.
The raid follows recent controversy about the tax affairs of Google and other multinational technology firms, with French authorities demanding €1.6bn (£1.3bn) in unpaid taxes from the internet giant.
Google’s European corporate structure allows it to pay its tax in the Republic of Ireland, where the rates are particularly low, even when sales are made in the UK, France, or other larger countries.
These arrangements, while generally considered legal, have caused public outrage and resulted in greater scrutiny on the tax affairs of such companies.
In January, Google agreed to pay UK tax authorities an extra £130m in tax for the period from 2005. Chancellor George Osborne heralded the deal as a successful outcome for the UK, but the agreement that was widely criticised as a “sweetheart deal” which let Google off the hook for billions of pounds.
Italy, which has a digital economy notably smaller than that of the UK, managed to claim €227m (£174m) in unpaid tax from Google for the period between 2009 and 2013.
Europe’s competition authorities have begun examining whether some of the deals struck between countries and large corporations, such as the UK’s deal with Google, amounts to illegal state aid.
In an attempt to force corporations to pay taxes where they make sales, last month the EU unveiled plans to make them more transparent about their tax affairs. Under the proposed rules, large corporations with more than €750m (£573m) in sales will have to declare how much tax they pay in each EU country, as well as any activities in tax havens.
