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- Germany arrests eight members of far-right paramilitary group
- French women 'stunned' as partners accused in mass rape trial
- US September trade deficit widest in over two years
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- Manchester United fans in favour of leaving Old Trafford
- Saudi Aramco's quarterly profit drops 15% on low oil prices
- Kenya court jails Olympian Kiplagat's killers for 35 years
- Dutch, French authorities raid Netflix offices in tax probe
- Barcelona to replace flood-hit Valencia for MotoGP finale
- Spain unveils aid plan a week after catastrophic floods
- Neymar to miss two weeks' training in fresh setback: coach
- Injured Djokovic gives up on ATP Finals title defence
- Indonesia volcano erupts again after killing nine day earlier
- Injured Djokovic to miss ATP Finals
- South Korea fines Meta for illegal collection of user data
- UK parliament to debate world's first 'smoke-free generation' bill
- Stock markets rise, dollar pressured as US votes
- 'Incalculable' bill awaits Spain after historic floods
- Europe auto struggles lead to cuts at Michelin, Germany's Schaeffler
- Award-winning Cambodian reporter quits journalism after arrest
- Kenyan athletes' deaths expose mental health struggles
- Start without a shot: PTSD sufferers welcome marathon effort
- Norway speeds ahead of EU in race for fossil-free roads
- Harris or Trump: America decides in knife-edge election
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- Most Asian markets rise as US heads to polls in toss-up vote
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- Myanmar junta chief visits key ally China
- Nintendo lowers sales forecast as first-half profits plunge
- Most Asian markets rise ahead of toss-up US election
- Greenland seeks to capitalise on 'last-chance tourism'
- Saudi Aramco says quarterly profit drops 15% on low oil prices
- Greenland eyes tourism takeoff with new airport runway
- Boeing union says approves contract, ending over 7-week strike
- Harris, Trump end historic campaigns with final pitch to voters
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- New Hampshire hamlet tied in first US Election day votes
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- Uncertain Inter with questions to answer before Arsenal clash
- With Mbappe gone, misfiring PSG are under pressure in Champions League
- China's premier 'fully confident' of hitting growth targets
- North Korea fires short-range ballistic missile salvo ahead of US election
- Taiwan couple charged with trying to influence elections for China
- Indonesian President Prabowo to visit China this week
- Critically endangered Sumatran elephant calf born in Indonesia
- The marble 'living Buddhas' trapped by Myanmar's civil war
Dutch, French authorities raid Netflix offices in tax probe
French and Dutch authorities raided streaming giant Netflix's offices in Paris and Amsterdam Tuesday as part of a tax fraud probe, a judicial source told AFP.
The search of "various locations" in France by specialist financial investigators relates to suspicions of "covering up serious tax fraud and off-the-books work" and is part of a probe opened in November 2022, the source said.
Netflix's Amsterdam headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa was also targeted for a search by a team of officials from both France and the Netherlands.
"French and Dutch authorities have been cooperating on this criminal case for many months," the source said.
Netflix is under investigation in France for its tax filings for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The company did not immediately respond Tuesday to AFP's request for comment.
Netflix insisted last year that it complies with tax law in all countries where it operates, after the probes were revealed in a media report.
French outlet La Lettre A had reported that Netflix's French operation was structured until 2021 so that all subscribers signed up with a Dutch subsidiary -- thereby "minimising its tax bill".
That left it paying less than one million euros ($1.1 million at today's rates) in taxes to Paris across 2019 and 2020, when it had around seven million French subscribers.
Authorities are now trying to determine whether Netflix kept up illegal attempts to minimise its reported profits and thereby its tax bill, La Lettre A added.
The French subsidiary reported very low operating margins compared to the US mothership in 2021 and 2022, the outlet said, paying just 6.5 million euros in tax on its profits in 2022.
But its practice of billing a large share of revenue to entities outside France represented a "tax optimisation strategy that is legal" under certain conditions, La Lettre A added.
- Streaming success -
Netflix earned over $9.8 billion in revenue worldwide from its 282 million subscribers in July-September this year, with net profit reaching $2.4 billion.
The group arrived in France just over 10 years ago and now boasts 10 million households subscribed.
Netflix says it confirms with local laws on commissioning French content, paying the full rate of VAT and contributing to a film industry levy.
In 2023, the company said it pumped 250 million euros into producing French content, of which 50 million went to feature films.
Its top French-made output includes the "Lupin" series starring Omar Sy.
The show is a modern reimagining of the classic early-1900s tales of "gentleman thief" Arsene Lupin by writer Maurice Leblanc -- France's answer to British detective Sherlock Holmes.
The Netflix version broke into the top 10 most-watched shows in 70 different countries, the platform boasts.
Y.Bouchard--BTB