E.U. Investigates McDonald’s Tax Deal With Luxembourg
By JAMES KANTERDEC. 3, 2015
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| the new york times.com |
(part)BRUSSELS — European Union authorities said on Thursday they were formally investigating whether Luxembourg had granted McDonald’s overly generous tax breaks, another front in their efforts to crack down on corporate tax avoidance.
Three multinational companies with operations in Luxembourg, a tiny European Union member state that has grown rich on financial services in recent decades, have already been ensnared by recent inquiries, including Amazon and Fiat.
The cases examine whether some European governments let major companies shift profits and pay lower tax rates than those available to other companies. Countries like France and Germany say the practices potentially deprive them of corporate tax revenue.
In the McDonald’s case, competition regulators from the European Commission will investigate deals that Luxembourg granted McDonald’s that may have led to the restaurant’s paying less in taxes than it owes. The commission did not indicate how much unpaid tax McDonald’s might have to repay if it rules against Luxembourg.
The European investigators said Luxembourg in 2009 granted a so-called tax ruling to one of the company’s units, McDonald’s Europe Franchising, allowing it to avoid taxes in Luxembourg on the basis that its profits were to be taxed in the United States. The unit made its earnings from franchisees operating restaurants in Europe and Russia that pay for the right to use the McDonald’s brand and other services. Luxembourg then granted a second tax ruling in 2009, exempting the unit from the need to prove that the income had actually been taxed in the United States.
While the commission did not specify how much unpaid tax might be at stake, it could be tens of millions of euros, because Luxembourg has a nominal corporate tax rate of 29 percent and the unit earned substantial profits including, according to the commission, more than 250 million euros in 2013.
“A tax ruling that agrees to McDonald’s paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the U.S. has to be looked at very carefully under E.U. state aid rules,” said the bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. “The purpose of double taxation treaties between countries is to avoid double taxation — not to justify double nontaxation.”
Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance described the inquiry as “preliminary” and said it would fully cooperate in the investigation. “Luxembourg considers that no special tax treatment nor selective advantage have been granted to McDonald’s,” the ministry said in a statement.
In a statement, McDonald’s said that it “complies with all tax laws and rules in Europe, and pays a significant amount of corporate income tax.”
“From 2010-14, the McDonald’s companies paid more than $2.1 billion just in corporate taxes in the European Union,” the statement said, adding that its independent franchisees also paid corporate and other taxes. “We are subject to the same tax laws as other companies, and are confident that the inquiry will be resolved favorably,” the statement said.
A group of American and European trade unions and an antipoverty charity have heavily lobbied the European Commission to open the McDonald’s case. In February, they issued a report accusing Luxembourg of allowing McDonald’s to avoid paying more than €1 billion in taxes from 2009 to 2013 in Britain, France, Italy, Spain and other countries.
歐盟星期四正式展開調查盧森堡是否提供麥當勞大筆租稅減免，試圖減少企業避稅問題。
迷你歐盟成員盧森堡，近十幾年來金融服務越來越興盛，跨國企業不禁在最近紛紛提出詢問，包括亞馬遜跟菲亞特。
這起案件檢視是否有政府刻意讓大型企業移轉利潤到其他國家以降低稅率。德國及法國表示刻意移轉利潤的行為可能會剝奪他們國家稅基。
拿麥當勞來說，盧森堡提供優惠租稅減免讓麥當勞可以少付很多原先該付的稅金，歐盟委員會依規定將調查這起交易，但沒有指出要是真的違反規定，麥當勞應回繳多少未繳稅金。
歐盟調查人員指出，2009年盧森堡提供了一項稅制規定，適用於公司單位，麥當勞歐洲地區特許經營者，所得利潤應依美國規定所繳的稅額全數准許在盧森堡境內免繳。這使得單位賺得所有在歐洲及俄國營業的麥當勞特許經營餐廳支付的權利金。2009年盧森堡再次發布規定，免去公司單位提出已在美國繳稅的證明。
不過委員會並沒有說出被避稅的金額有多少，猜測應有上百萬歐元，畢竟盧森堡企業稅有29%，且根據委員會資料表示，2013年公司單位具體所得應有2.5億歐元。
「這種稅制規定讓麥當勞不管是在美國或是盧森堡都沒有繳稅義務，這規定應該要被嚴格檢討，」歐盟專員Margrethe表示。「去除雙重課稅目的是為了避免被課兩次稅，而不是去除兩次課稅。」
盧森堡財政部長在聲明裡形容這只是個開始，並表示會全力配合調查。「盧森堡應該不會對麥當勞有特別租稅條款或是選擇性的優惠他們。2010年到2014年間，麥當勞已經支付超過21億的稅金給歐盟，」聲明同時附上麥當勞支付權利金及其他企業等相關稅賦文件。「我們認為這在其他國家是一樣的稅負，而且我們有信心可以和平解決這個爭議。」
一個由美國及歐洲成員組成的工會和反貧困慈善組織強烈遊說歐盟委員會公開麥當勞調查案件。二月時，他們發表一份聲明，指責盧森堡在2009年到2013年間讓麥當勞在英國，德國，義大利，西班牙及其他國家免繳稅的金額超過了10億歐元。
ensnare (v.) 誘惑
deprive (v.) 剝奪
franchisee (n.) 特許經營者
preliminary (n.) 初步的
lobby (v.) 遊說
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