Offices of streaming large Netflix in Paris and Amsterdam have been raided by the French and Dutch authorities as a part of an investigation into tax fraud, French judicial sources say.
Officials from the 2 international locations have been co-operating on the case for the reason that investigation was opened in November 2022.
Netflix has not as but made any particular touch upon the raids, however insists it complies with tax legal guidelines wherever it operates.
The Amsterdam workplace is the headquarters of the corporate’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The French investigation is being carried out by the National Financial Prosecutor’s workplace (PNF), a particular unit used for investigations into high-profile white-collar crime.
It pertains to suspicions of “protecting up severe tax fraud and off-the-books work”, in line with the PNF.
The firm can also be beneath investigation for tax filings for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The French sources mentioned authorities in the Netherlands had been conducting simultaneous searches, and that co-operation between the 2 international locations had been happening for “many months”.
Last yr, French media outlet La Lettre reported that till 2021, Netflix in France minimised its tax funds by declaring its turnover generated in France to the Netherlands.
After it deserted this association, La Lettre mentioned, its annual declared turnover in France jumped from €47.1m ($51.3m; £39.6m) in 2020 to €1.2bn in 2021.
However, the outlet says investigators try to find out whether or not Netflix continued to aim to minimise its income after 2021.
Netflix arrived in France greater than 10 years in the past, opening its Paris workplace in 2020. It has some 10 million subscribers in the nation, in line with AFP information company.