“Pandora papers”: Bercy checks whether French tax residents have defrauded

Published on : 05/10/2021 – 18:00

Bercy has launched checks on the presence or not of French tax residents among the people pinned in the “Pandora papers”, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told AFP on Tuesday, October 5, saying he could not comment on this topic at this stage.

“We cannot confirm for the moment the presence of French tax residents” said the minister in a statement sent to AFP.

“If French tax residents were to be involved in abusive optimization schemes, the General Directorate of Public Finances, at my request, would immediately take the necessary steps in connection with the justice system to recover all the sums due”, again affirmed Bruno Le Maire.

>> To see : “Pandora papers”: 12 million documents scanned by 600 journalists

“Fiscal exemplarity is the keystone of confidence in institutions,” said the minister, saying he was “shocked” by the revelations.

Facts uncovered by the “Pandora papers”, which are based on some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies, revealed the existence of more than 29,000 offshore companies.

The opacity surrounding these companies located in countries or territories with very favorable taxation can be used to conceal financial assets and to evade the tax administration.

A series of cases

According to the newspaper Le Monde, 600 French people appear in the “Pandora papers” investigation. However, the latter may be tax residents of other countries, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who claims to be a Moroccan resident since 2013.

“What we know at this stage is based on what has been revealed in the press”, but “we have instructed the General Directorate of Public Finances to use and analyze each information made public”, specified the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, questioned Tuesday during questions to the government at the National Assembly.

The documents unveiled in the “Pandora papers” arise in the wake of a series of cases brought to light by the international network of journalists ICIJ, among which the “Offshore leaks”, “Panama papers” or even the “China leaks” .

Following the revelations of the “Panama papers” in 2016, “these are 257 cases (of French) which have been rectified or taken to court, more than 200 million euros in penalties or adjustments which have been sent”, indicated on Tuesday Olivier Dussopt, seeing in it “the demonstration” of the commitment of the tax administration and the government to fight against fraud.

With AFP