The French tax authorities have given up continuing with the judicial procedure against the luxury giant LVMH, which they suspect of tax fraud, a source in Bercy learned on Tuesday, confirming the information from Mediapart.
In February 2023, the Court of Cassation annulled a court decision invalidating a tax registration at LVMH in 2019 and ordered the return of the seized documents. He referred the parties to the Paris Court of Appeal. The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP), however, decided not to pursue the matter, indicated a Bercy source, thus refusing to substantiate its suspicions of tax fraud.
“It seemed a bit useless to us” four years later, because “this type of procedure is only interesting if there is an element of surprise” and “we ran the risk of not finding the documents” in question, he added.
Goodwill of the group
The National Tax Investigation Department (DNEF) carried out a search in September 2019 at several sites of the French luxury giant, including the headquarters of LVMH, on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, in a case of possible tax fraud.
The tax authorities wanted to investigate the role of a Belgian company, LVMH Finance Belgique SA (LFB), a treasury center that has since been repatriated to France. The appeals court invalidated this registration in 2020 and ordered the return of the seized documents without the possibility of the DNEF keeping a copy. As the appeal court’s decision was executive, the documents were delivered to LVMH.
Meanwhile, unrelated to this matter, LVMH concluded in 2022 with the tax administration a “tax collaboration” whose objective, by establishing a dialogue between the parties, is “to try to clarify in advance issues that may seem problematic.” , according to the same Bercy source.
Contacted by AFP, LVMH did not immediately react.
Source: BFM TV
