EDF hit with £1bn tax bill
EDF is now an global player in providing electricity, relying on France’s 58 nuclear reactors, as well as developing new plants, notably the controversial Hinkley Point project in Britain.
The European Commission’s investigation found the energy company, which is the main electricity provider in France, benefited from tax breaks that were incompatible with EU state aid rules.
The decision, which follows an annulment of a similar 2003 decision by the EU’s top court, comes amid a broader crackdown by Brussels on tax avoidance by major companies.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement that “whether private or public, large or small, any undertaking operating in the Single Market must pay its fair share of corporation tax”.
It is the latest in a string of big-name state aid investigations by the EU’s competition authority, including into Apple’s dealings in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and those of a Fiat unit in Luxembourg. The company, 84% owned by the French government, remains the dominant power producer and distributor in France even after the market was thrown open to competition in 2007.
EDF wont be weakened by the repayment because it generates enough profit, Frances Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron told journalists in Paris. “EDF contests the existence of illegal state aid and will request, under the reservation of a closer analysis of the ruling, a cancellation by the EU court”, it added in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse. The commission reopened the case in 2013.
French electricity giant EDF was yesterday ordered by the EU to repay the French state nearly €1.4bn (£1bn) in back taxes, in a case dating from 1997. This includes the money from the 1997 tax exemption and another €488 million of interest, the EU said Wednesday.
