McDonald’s is under investigation by European Union (EU) regulators for illegal tax deals with Luxembourg, according to sources close to the inquiry.
Advertisement
Luxembourg also drew the attention of regulators past year when the “LuxLeaks” revealed that hundreds of companies were benefiteing from government tax deals brokered by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The commission’s preliminary view is that the tax ruling “may have granted McDonald’s an advantageous tax treatment in breach of European Union state-aid rules”, it said.
Corporate tax dodging is something everyone is very interested in these days, and so, to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is looking at investigating McDonald’s over exactly that.
In October, Vestager ordered the Dutch government to claw back up to 30 million euros in back taxes from US coffee chain Starbucks and told Luxembourg to do the same for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
“Additionally, we pay social, real estate and other taxes”.
Corporate tax avoidance has become a hot political issue in Europe.
An alleged “sweetheart” tax deal saw the fast food chain’s Luxembourg wing, McD Europe Franchising Sarl, generate €834m (£600m) in revenue in 2013 despite having a minimal staff skeleton of only 13 people.
Advertisement
Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso and Luxembourg’s finance ministry both declined to comment. If so, McDonald’s could face sizable demands for back taxes.
