Google to pay penalty of $548 mn in France to settle tax probe

Google has agreed to pay $548 million fine in France to settle a fiscal fraud probe that started four years ago. Google, part of Alphabet, pays little tax in most European countries because it reports almost all sales in Ireland.

French investigators have been seeking to establish whether Google, whose European headquarters are based in Dublin, failed to pay its dues to the state by avoiding to declare parts of its activities in the country. This is possible thanks to a loophole in international tax law but it hinges on staff in Dublin concluding all sales contracts.

Meanwhile, Google won a legal battle after Europe’s top court said publishers in Germany could not demand copyright fees since 2013 from the technology firm because the European Commission had not been notified of the German regulation.

The group of publishers previously said they were demanding $1.1 billion from Google-owner Alphabet in copyright fees for their news snippets and other items published by the U.S. company on the Web. The settlement comprises a fine of 500 million euros and additional taxes of 465 million euros, Google said in a statement.

The report further says, Google, Apple and other U.S. tech giants have long taken advantage of a loophole that allows them to report almost all their sales in Ireland, which often results in them paying little taxes in other European countries and the German case underlines the battle waged by publishers seeking a share of revenues earned from the distribution of news on Alphabet services such as Google News and YouTube.