As part of an investigation into alleged VAT fraud applied to the operator’s TV offers, the Paris headquarters of SFR was raided. The CEO of Altice France confirms the operation.
Problems accumulate for the historic French operator SFR. It’s no secret the company is extremely indebted. We are talking about approximately 24 billion euros all the same. Note thatAltice, the parent company, is not necessarily better off. Debt of 60 billion euros, it could be saved by other operators. For its part, SFR must also deal with the law. In January 2022, an investigation is opened to aggravated tax fraud and laundering of facts. It follows a complaint from an SFR service provider and of denunciations to the tax authorities. The company SFR is concerned in the same way as SFR Fiber.
We suspect SFR of having reduced VAT on two of its products in 2015 and 2016: triple play offers (bringing together Internet, television and landline telephone) and press services. This would represent a shortfall of 200 million euros for the tax administration. This is not the first time that this type of practice has taken place at the operator. In 2022, we learned via the magazine Capital that SFR was the subject of a tax adjustment of 420 million eurosagain for having reduced VAT on its TV offers.
SFR headquarters in Paris raided as part of investigation into suspected VAT fraud
On November 7, 2023, investigators from the national financial prosecutor’s office have invested the SFR Paris headquarters for the to search. The information was quickly confirmed by Arthur Dreyfuss, CEO of Altice Francewhich specifies that “this search is linked to a dispute with the tax administration over the VAT rates applied to our TV offers between 2013 and 2019”.
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If it took place “peacefully in a spirit of cooperation” in the words of the CEO, it is still a new blow for the operator. It is too early to know the results of the operation, if there are any. The investigation is still ongoing and we will have to wait for a possible conviction to know the extent of the envisaged sanction.
Source: The Tribune