Brussels, 01/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is reported to be including McDonald's in its investigations into potential state aid granted by Luxembourg to multinationals, such as Amazon, Fiat Finance and Trade, or to Apple in Ireland.
The call for such a move was made by a coalition of European and US trade unions and the anti-poverty campaign War on Want at the end of February (see EUROPE 11262) in a report revealing how the US fast food chain deliberately avoided tax of some billion euro in the EU from 2009 to 2013. A source told Reuters that “the Commission has sent a letter to Luxembourg asking them to clarify the facts”. The European Commission and Luxembourg have declined to comment and would not confirm the information.
The report by the trade unions and War on Want states that, in 2013, McDonalds' Luxembourg-based holding company's tax rate fell to 1.4%, which seems to suggest that it benefitted from a tax ruling similar to those revealed in the Luxleaks affair. (Elodie Lamer)