France has this week joined Denmark and Poland in blocking firms registered in offshore tax havens from claiming aid from its government coronavirus bailout.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced today that companies either registered, or controlling subsidiaries, in tax havens are ineligible for the 110 billion euros ($108 billion) rescue package.
“It goes without saying that if a company has its tax headquarters or subsidiaries in a tax haven, I want to say with great force, it will not be able to benefit from state financial aid,” Le Maire told the France Info radio station.
“There are rules that must be followed. If you have benefited from the state treasury, you cannot pay dividends and you cannot buy back shares,” he said.
“And if your head office is located in a tax haven, it is obvious that you cannot benefit from public support.”
France becomes the latest country to ban firms registered in offshore tax havens from its government coronavirus bailout.
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) April 23, 2020
It is an opportunity to make a dent in tax avoidance.
When is the UK going to do the decent thing @BorisJohnson ?https://t.co/TO8txlGcme
France is the third country to enforce such a measure amid the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis.
On April 8, the prime minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, said that large companies wanting a chunk of his government’s roughly $6 billion bailout fund must pay domestic business taxes.
“Let’s end tax havens, which are the bane of modern economies,” he said.
Denmark followed suit on Saturday. “Companies based on tax havens in accordance with EU guidelines cannot receive compensation,” a statement from the country’s finance ministry read.
Related: UK could see deepest economic slump for several centuries, Bank of England says
Are there tax haven companies in the UK that the government are bailing out, or would bail out if the company asked for support?
Absolutely the right way to go these companies need to know the correct way to behave let’s hope our country follows suit give them nothing
I agree that these companies should not benefit from financial assistance from governments; the awkward issue being that it will be the employees that will bear the brunt, loose jobs etc through no fault of their own. All governments should have been more preventative to their Ability to exist in the first place, the problem being, I suspect, to many ministers with hands in the pot doing ok for themselves out of these tax evasive methods.
It’s good to see the bold moves taken by the three countries currently applying the ‘black list’ and it will be encouraging to see more join them.
our government are so greedy that they all have there noses in the trough and the paye are the ones paying the true tax as we are not all self employed like mp ?who all get those paid holidays more than the real working people lets not talk about meals or drinks ? when kids are going hungry but they no best
i see yous did not like the truth