Bernard Arnault, would it become a true champion of the tax optimization, which claims that it “has always paid 100% of its taxes in France “and that” it is one of the most important French taxpayer ” ? LVMH carries out addition of no less than 1.2 billion euros of taxes to the tax authorities, a level that places the group of luxury light years of the GAFA. Yet the show “Exhibit a” broadcast this evening on France 3 at 23h25 shines its spotlight on three complex cases which show that the report of Bernard Arnault with the tax administration is not always as fluid as it suggests.
Leased 1.5 million euros for the week
The first part of the show plunges us into the universe glitzy yacht of Bernard Arnault, the Symphony. The documentary lingers on the mechanism put in place by Bernard Arnault not to integrate this asset ultra luxurious in its heritage. Malta to Cayman Islands we travel to the discretion of the tax havens and discover that Bernard Arnault is a tenant of his own property, and that the staff did not really work 35 hours per week.
Eckert confirms a tax adjustment
The film France 3 then stops for a long moment on the Belgium, and raises the question : Bernard Arnault a-t-it really left Belgium ? We discover the Blue Tower, tower, located in the suburbs of Brussels, where Bernard Arnault would have domiciled no less than 20 billion euros of assets, according to France 3 that has peeled the accounts of all belgian companies from 2008 filed with the commercial Court. The documentary then returns on the attempt to address Bernard Arnault in Uccle in Belgium. A case that has resulted in an abandonment of the prosecution of the Belgian and the payment by the businessman of a sum of transaction. The case is old, and the documentary brings here nothing really new. On the other hand, he dwells on the fact that the former belgian State secretary for the fight against tax evasion John Crombez has put at the disposal of the French tax administration the record as a whole. And there, facing the camera appears Christian Eckert, the former minister of the Budget, which recognizes without ever mentioning the name of Bernard Arnault (but everyone will have understood who he was talking to) that this case “has given rise to recovery and penalties “. This is without doubt the most truculent of the documentary.
Lack-to-win for the State
Is this really a gift that LVMH has done to the French in ushering in the Foundation Vuitton, or is it rather a gift of the State to LVMH? This is the question which is answered by this evening the documentary that reveals the amount of work of this spectacular monument and the missing-in-win State in this operation. “I can hardly believe that Bernard Arnault has done that for a tax reduction” reacts Jean-Jacques Aillagon former minister of Culture and author of the law of patronage widely used by LVMH. A Aillagon that they could not be accused of subjectivity in this folder : it now works for… François Pinault.
Exhibit a, France 3, broadcast on Wednesday 28 march at 23: 30.
