Tax fraud: an unprecedented fine for McDonald’s

In the group’s scullery McDonald’sis concocted a mictax mac. To avoid a lawsuit for fraud tax in France, the giant American agrees to pay a fine 1.25 billion euros, or 250 million Big Macs, the brand’s famous hamburger. It is a victory for the militant employees of the company gathered on the morning of Thursday June 16 at the Paris court. At the heart of the investigation: revenues from the brand’s restaurants. The turnover achieved in France was transferred to the Netherlands and then to Luxembourg, where taxation is more advantageous than in France.

At the end of the hearing, the plaintiffs’ lawyer Éva Joly was satisfied. “For all multinationals in this country, this is a warning. It’s over. It’s just like corruption in the 1990s.”she believes. “I want to say that this is an agreement without admission of facts, without admission of guilt”declares Me Denis Chemlalawyer for McDonald’s France. The agreement thus puts an end to more than ten years of litigation with the tax authorities.