2023-04-21 17:16:28
Will Crédit Agricole escape criminal prosecution in the so-called “CumCum” tax scandal? This is in any case the objective of the large French bank, which has agreed to negotiate with the French tax authorities on its involvement in these widespread practices in the financial sphere, aimed at circumventing the tax on dividends owed by customers. foreign owners of shares in French companies, as revealed on Friday, April 21, the Bloomberg agency, .
On March 28, a wave of searches was launched by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) at the headquarters of five major banks (Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and its subsidiary Exane, Natixis and HSBC), as part of an investigation involving several open floors for aggravated laundering of tax evasion. This operation of unprecedented scale, the largest in the history of the PNF, had created a stir in the financial center of Paris. Crédit Agricole had escaped the raid by investigators.
Indeed, an agreement has been concluded between the French establishment and the tax authorities, providing for the payment of“about 35 million euros” tax arrears and fines. This agreement was mentioned on December 21, 2021 by the head of tax audit of the general directorate of public finances, Frédéric Iannucci, during hearings organized by the Senate Finance Committee.
Without revealing the name of the bank concerned, Mr. Iannucci had indicated that an establishment, “acknowledging that the practices in question were not part of the normal functioning of the markets”, accepted a tax adjustment. Asked, neither Crédit Agricole nor the Directorate General of Public Finance wanted to speak.
Criminal proceedings still possible
According to information from Monde, the agreement concluded by the bank does not, however, settle all its files with the tax authorities. Other more recent transactions involving CACIB, the markets branch of Crédit Agricole, would be scrutinized by the tax authorities.
Above all, this first agreement with the tax authorities does not prejudge the fate of the bank on the criminal level. If it has so far escaped searches, Crédit Agricole remains at the mercy of prosecution by the PNF, like all the major market banks established in France and suspected of having practiced “CumCum”.
Behind this Latin name hide financial techniques consisting of setting up complex operations on the markets, with the aim of circumventing the tax on dividends due by the shareholders of companies listed on the stock exchange. This tax “hold-up”, which causes France to lose several billion euros in tax revenue each year, has long flourished in a legal gray area. But it could experience a serious setback due to the coordinated offensive of the judicial and tax authorities.
You have 40.6% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
#Crédit #Agricole #accepted #tax #adjustment