Facebook agrees to pay France £94 million in back taxes

Nick Ansell/PA Archive/PA Images

Facebook has agreed to pay the French government €106 million (£94 million) in back taxes and penalties.

The agreement comes after tax authorities carried out an extensive audit of a decade of the social media giant's operations in the country, from 2009-2018, a company spokesperson said.

The spokesperson, who was not authorised to be publicly named according to Facebook policy, said the company "takes its tax obligations seriously" wherever it operates.

The French tax department would not comment on the deal, citing the right to tax secrecy.

Facebook's French revenues soared last year after the company decided to include advertising income from French companies in its local accounting declarations.

It did this instead of declaring them in low-tax Ireland, where Facebook's international operations are based.

As a result, Facebook will pay 8.4 million euros (£7.5 million) in profit taxes in France this year, about 50 per cent more than last year, the spokesperson said.

That change came in the wake of efforts from French President Emmanuel Macron and his government to press online powerhouses like Facebook, Google and Amazon to pay more taxes locally.

The push has led to a tit-for-tat tax battle with the US.

France imposed a 3 per cent digital services tax on global technology giants, and last month the Trump administration announced plans to impose taxes on 1.3 billion US dollars (£980 million) worth of French imports, including handbags and makeup, in retaliation.

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