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McKinsey’s soaring taxes?
McKinsey’s soaring taxes?
(CASH INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
In the middle of the 2022 presidential campaign, a Senate committee revealed that in France, the American consulting firm had not paid corporate tax for ten years. Elise Lucet went to interview the boss of McKinsey France. Excerpt from an investigation to be seen on September 17 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.
Republican Senator Arnaud Bazin is the man behind the McKinsey tax scandal. In 2022, together with Communist Senator Eliane Assassi, they set up a commission of inquiry into the growing influence of consulting firms on public policy. Their report will be published in March 2022.
It is in this context that the chairman of the Senate committee helped to uncover this tax scandal. He asked the tax authorities to provide him with a table with the amount of taxes paid by McKinsey and a dozen other firms working for the French state. On this document, Arnaud Bazin noted that “McKinsey is the only firm that has not paid corporate tax for ten years”.
This means that this company “which makes 300 to 350 million euros in turnover in France, in order of magnitude”according to him, would not have made any profit between 2011 and 2020. A situation “atypical”or even “unique” : it would be the “alone, among all foreign consulting firms”not having been profitable for ten years…
For months, “Cash Investigation” has been soliciting McKinsey in France to obtain an interview with its boss, Clarisse Magnin. Without success. The magazine having learned that she was giving a conference in a Parisian law firm, Elise Lucet decided to take advantage of the opportunity to interview her.
Why did McKinsey not pay corporate taxes between 2011 and 2020, unlike other consulting firms that worked for the State? “Because we have not generated any profitability in France”says Clarisse Magnin, despite the 300 to 400 million euros in turnover generated per year.
“In 2021, we paid corporate tax. There were years when we paid,” replies Clarisse Magnin. The general manager unfortunately does not remember the amounts paid, but she will “see if she can communicate them”. That year, McKinsey’s turnover in France amounted to 450 million euros. And for the years 2022 and 2023, what about it? The boss of McKinsey France also does not remember if her company paid this tax in recent years… After this interview, the “Cash Investigation” team contacted the American consulting firm to obtain these figures. He refused to disclose the amount of corporate taxes he claims to have paid in 2021.
Let us recall that on the tax side, McKinsey France is at the heart of two ongoing investigations, one led by the tax authorities, the other by the courts for “aggravated laundering of tax fraud”.
Excerpt from “McKinsey, a firm at the heart of power”, an investigation by “Cash Investigation” carried out in partnership with Le Nouvel Obs, to be seen on September 17, 2024.
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