A court in France ruled out a decision that Google will not pay $1.22 billion in back taxes.
The French finance ministry had claimed that the advertising revenue between 2005 and 2010 that Google had declared in Ireland, had actually been earned in France; and that the company did this to avoid paying corporate tax and value-added tax. The tech giant argued that Google Ireland Limited did not have a “permanent establishment” or sufficient taxable presence in France to justify the bill. The court ruled in favor of the tech giant.
This ruling has come at a time when France is trying to impose a tax on tech giants, with an introduction of a French levy as it pushes for broader international limits.
