Following the “Pandora Papers”, Bercy checks whether French tax residents have defrauded – Le Monde

After the revelations of an international consortium of 150 editorial staff (ICIJ), including The world is part, through the “Pandora Papers”, Bercy has launched verifications concerning the presence or not of French tax residents among the people involved, announced Tuesday, October 5, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire. “We cannot confirm for the moment the presence of tax residents” French, he said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse.

#PandoraPapers | I asked @dgfip_officiel to check if French tax residents have defrauded. If … https://t.co/6VPIwYLK11

– BrunoLeMaire (@Bruno Le Maire)

600 French people questioned

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

The revelations of the “Pandora Papers”, which are based on some 11.9 million documents from fourteen financial services companies, have uncovered more than 29,000 offshore companies. The opacity surrounding these structures located in countries or territories with very favorable taxation can be used to conceal financial assets and to evade the tax administration.

Some 600 French people appear in the survey. But the latter may be tax residents of other countries, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who claims to be a Moroccan resident since 2013. “Fiscal exemplarity is the keystone of confidence in institutions”, had also estimated Bruno Le Maire, saying to himself “Shocked” by these “Pandora Papers”.

Editor’s Note: In accordance with the practices applicable during previous inquiries, neither The world nor any of the media partners in the investigation will provide additional information to the authorities. We consider our role to be to select and verify information of public interest, which then appears in our publications. Justice and the tax authorities are free to carry out their own investigations on the basis of our articles, which they did during the “Panama Papers”, leading to hundreds of tax audits and several judicial convictions.