Apple has reached a deal with French authorities to pay an undeclared amount of back-dated tax, according to multiple reports today.
Apple's French division confirmed the tax payment agreement to Reuters, but didn't disclose how much it had agreed to pay, although French media suggest the sum is around 500 million euros ($571 million).
"As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world," Apple France said in a statement. "The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts."
France has been working diligently to stop tech companies like Apple from exploiting tax loopholes in the country. The loopholes are said to have allowed Apple to "minimize taxes and grab market share" at the expense of Europe-based companies.
French President Emmanuel Macron is one of the leaders behind the tax crackdown on international tech companies, with a goal of bringing a more unified corporate tax system across the nineteen euro area states.
As noted by iPhon.fr, Apple and French tax authorities reached the agreement for the payment of several years of unpaid taxes in December, according to French newspaper L'Expansion. The agreement followed a meeting in October between Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Macron, in which both reportedly agreed that a solution would ultimately be enacted by the European Union rather than France.
Apple has had trouble with French tax activist groups accusing the company of wide-scale tax evasion and occupying its Parisian retail stores. In February 2018, Apple sued the activist group "Attac" for its protests in stores, but the High Court of Paris denied Apple's request for an injunction that would have blocked the group from protesting.
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Top Rated Comments
Starbucks for example does not make any profits in Germany for years, at least according to their tax statements. So, why keep the stores open? Well, if you just shift your profits by making your stores pay "license fees" to its mother company and list those as costs, then you don't make any profits.
These decisions are always about what intercompany cross charges between Apple companies are allowed and what aren’t....
That is a company in itself.
As any other company it will pay taxes on its profits just like a champagne retailer will pay in the USA.