The government has “no lessons to learn in the fight against tax optimization”, hammered Bruno Le Maire on Europe 1 on Wednesday, in response to suspicions of tax optimization weighing on French subsidiaries of the McKinsey firm.
The Minister of Economy and Finance also assured that a “tax audit” had been launched by Bercy against McKinsey “before the Senate report” published in mid-March, which accused the two main French entities of the American firm for having paid no corporate tax in France between 2011 and 2020.
Contacted by AFP, the ministry did not wish to provide further details on the timetable for this tax audit.
According to an article published on Wednesday in La Lettre A, the Directorate General of Public Finance would have launched this control in December 2021.
The audit would cover two French entities of the American firm, McKinsey & Company INC. France and McKinsey & Company SAS, precisely the two companies singled out by the Senate in its report.
“We know that large international companies make profits in France. We are going to check (…) McKinsey will pay all the taxes it owes France ruby on the nail, ”insisted Bruno Le Maire on Wednesday.
For the Minister, the McKinsey affair is “proof of the immense disarray of the opposition (…) who are making a point of cases that do not exist”.
“We have no lessons to take from anyone in the fight against tax optimization,” he continued.
Emmanuel Macron “has for five years fought tax evasion, fought tax optimization, set up the taxation of digital giants”, listed Bruno Le Maire.
The president also “raised the minimum taxation on the largest companies, the taxation to 15%”, he added.
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“I understand that Emmanuel Macron is annoyed”, concluded Bruno Le Maire, two days after a trip where the president-candidate had tried at length to justify the use by the State of consulting firms, described as a “sprawling phenomenon” by the Senate.
“We’ve said a lot of nonsense in recent days”, had pinged the president, before calling not to “not confuse everything”.
The day before on France 3, Emmanuel Macron was also annoyed with questions on the subject.
“We have the impression that there are tricks, it’s not true,” he said in particular.