US giant General Electric (GE) resorted to tax optimization in France between 2015 and 2020, allowing it to shift up to 800 million euros in profits abroad, according to information published by the survey website on Sunday May 29. revealing of.

These practices relate to the French entity of GE’s gas turbines in Belfort, which was sued by employees in December 2021 who meticulously decried its tax optimization scheme. These employees have filed a complaint with Fraud of the right to employee participation.

Since the takeover of Alstom’s Belfort turbine plant in 2015, the American multinational could have caused profits of up to 800 million euros to flee to Switzerland and the US state of Delaware, a shortfall of 150-300 million. to the French tax authorities according to factory budgets and reviews consulted revealing of.

According to this financial package, the Belfort plant was Contract Manufacturing Unit or “Service Provider” A subsidiary of Swiss General Electric, which handles sales and generates most of the profits. The power plant’s turbine manufacturer also paid royalties to its US parent company for the use of its brand and technology.

No tax audit

Percy had previously validated the tax system, according to protocol ” trust “ With the Tax Department, sets Disclose. In accordance with this procedure established by the Ministry of Finance in 2013 with a few companies, including GE, the company prepares its tax plan with the tax authorities, who undertake not to conduct an audit.

“GE respects the tax rules in the countries in which the company operates”replied, Sunday, industrial spokesman. “All companies that operate and manufacture in multiple countries have a transfer pricing policy to ensure that all business-to-business transactions are conducted on a level playing field. [c’est-à-dire à des prix qui s’appliqueraient aux transactions entre parties non liées] »he completed.

In the recall filed in December 2021, the Federation of Sudanese Industries and GE’s Social and Economic Commission (CSE) accused the company of lowering the tax score for the Belfort Gas Turbine Entity (GE EPF) by shifting wealth to overseas subsidiaries, where taxes are more beneficial. They are demanding compensation for participation during the period 2015-2020.

CSE has estimated the amount of profits held in tax havens at the expense of GE EPF at around €1 billion in recent years. EDF has since announced the purchase of a portion of the site’s activities for $1.2 billion.