Two searches took place at Netflix premises in Paris and the Netherlands this Tuesday, November 5, 2024 for suspicion of aggravated tax fraud.
The premises of Netflix were searched this Tuesday, November 5 in the morning in France, in the Parisian premises of the streaming giant, but also in the Amsterdam offices in the Netherlands, following a preliminary investigation opened in November 2022 for suspicions of tax fraud. Requested by AFP, Netflix did not comment.
In detail, according to information from BFM TV, the platform streaming would be the subject of an investigation carried out by the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial Crimes for charges of laundering, aggravated tax fraud and hidden work in an organized gang. These searches are carried out jointly with members of the national financial prosecutor’s office and the Dutch authorities as well as the European Union unit for better judicial cooperation between member states.
This is not the first time that Netflix has been subject to a tax audit in France. In August 2023, the authorities questioned the re-invoicing techniques of the French subsidiary of the streaming giant, accused of minimizing its taxation in France by declaring its turnover in France from 2019 to 2021 in the Netherlands. “Between 2019 and 2020, Netflix Services France”, which already claimed 7 million subscribers in France, thus paid “only 981,000 euros in taxes on profits” then specified Letter A. The platform, for its part, had assured “to comply with the tax rules of all countries in which [ils opèrent] in the world.”