No, Gabriel Attal did not claim that the consulting firm paid its taxes in France because it paid VAT

A “dumb and idiotic argument”, “how can you say this kind of nonsense”… A false quote from Gabriel Attal about taxes from the consulting firm McKinsey sparked an avalanche of angry comments on social networks.

The government spokesman reportedly said: “You can’t say McKinsey didn’t pay taxes in France because when we get invoices from them, we pay them with VAT on them.”

No, Gabriel Attal did not make these remarks on McKinsey and the VAT regulations. – Twitter screenshot

The fake quote is accompanied by an image showing Gabriel Attal on the show The big mouths from RMC. The quote is shared thousands of times on Twitter. The anti-sanitary pass lawyer Fabrice Di Vizio or Mike Borowski, founder of the site The left killed me, a site pinned for several poisonings, have it reprise in tweets shared more than 1,500 times each, indignant at these remarks. The sentence also circulates on Facebook, in the form of a screenshot.

FAKE OFF

The misrepresentation was first published on Thursday on a Twitter account called “Cyrille Rodnoi”. The owner of this account warns in capital letters: on his account, are published “fake news”, “humor” and “troll”.

Gabriel Attal did give an interview to RMC’s Grandes gueules on Thursday morning. If he was indeed questioned about the taxes paid by the consulting firm, not once did he utter the sentence attributed to him on social networks. The government spokesperson kicked in, referring to “an ongoing investigation”. “If there are fines to be made, there will be fines,” he concluded.

The Senate pinned the consulting firm

Senators have singled out the consulting firm in a report published on March 16, accusing it of not having paid corporate tax in France since 2011: “The McKinsey firm is indeed subject to corporate tax in France but its payments have been zero euros for at least ten years”, they note, while “its turnover on national territory reached 329 million euros in 2020, of which approximately 5% in the public sector, and employs about 600 people there.

Bruno Le Maire promised on Sunday that his Ministry of Economy and Finance will ensure that “McKinsey will pay the taxes they owe to France”. The Senate also announced on Friday that it had taken legal action for “false testimony”, after the hearing on January 18 of an associate director of the consulting firm.