McDonald's agrees to pay France $1.3 billion to settle a case accusing it of tax invasion over a period of 10 years

June 17, 2022

McDonald's agrees to pay France $1.3 billion to settle a case accusing it of tax invasion over a period of 10 years

McDonald's is paying France $1.3 billion to settle a case accusing it of tax invasion.
The figure includes a public interest fine of $530 million.
France's financial prosecutor said it was the biggest settlement in French legal history, per The Times.

McDonald's has agreed to pay France €1.25 billion (around $1.3 billion) to settle a case that accused the fast-food giant of a decade of tax invasion, the office of France's financial prosecutor said Thursday.

This includes a public interest fine of €510 million ($530 million), it said, alongside €737 billion ($776 billion) for unpaid taxes between 2009 and 2020, The Times reported.

In total, McDonald's will be paying two-and-a-half times more than the amount of taxes it skipped, France's financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert said, per Bloomberg. Bohnert said that this was the biggest settlement in French legal history and the maximum fine allowed under French law, per The Times.

The lawsuit alleged that McDonald's transferred the fees it received from French franchises to a unit in Luxembourg, allowing it to lower its French tax bill, per The Times. The allegations first appeared in 2014, Reuters reported.

Eric Dezeuze, McDonald's lawyer in the case, rejected the allegations of tax fraud and said that the fast-food chain had paid €2.2 billion ($2.32 billion) in tax in France between 2009 and 2020, The Times reported.

McDonald's did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

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