Apple has paid back 10 years of tax to the French tax authority – around €500 million (over $570 million) – according to L’Express, business journal.
The iPhone maker is under pressure to pay taxes to European Union countries after it was found to have engaged in legal financial chicanery to significantly reduce its tax burden.
Ars previously reported that Apple is paying an effective 2.3% tax on overseas profits using various legal tax schemes in various countries as a way to reduce its tax burden. Google, Microsoft, and many other large national corporations do the same thing. (Ars has also explained how such programs often work.)
“As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by financial authorities around the world,” Apple France said in a statement provided to the media. “The French tax administration recently completed a multi-year audit on the company’s French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts.”
The French business magazine also noted that for several months, Apple has been negotiating with the tax agency, known as DVNI, adding that it may take until the end of the year to reach a final agreement. DVNI struck a similar deal with Amazon last year and is evaluating other major tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
In early 2019, France ordered a GAFA tax (under the French acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) and is lobbying the European Union to come up with an EU-wide tax system for tech giants.