“The tax authorities are demanding 655 million euros from Canal Plus”. This is the title of the article published yesterday morning by l’Informed, in which we learn that “Bercy has notified several adjustments to the encrypted channel, estimating that it can no longer benefit from a VAT reduced to 10% on its subscriptions”.
“Several proposals for rectification”
A few hours later, the newspaper Le Monde also published an article on its website stating that the Vivendi subsidiary acknowledged having received “several rectification proposals” from the French tax authorities, which represents a total potential adjustment of 655 .6 million euros.
In the paper by journalists Olivier Pinaud and Brice Laemle, we can read: “The tax authorities accuse Canal+ of having unduly applied reduced rates of value added tax (VAT) during three separate periods. Between 2016 and 2019, the group thus used rates of 2.10% and 5.5% for some of its services (the digital press kiosk Cafeyn, for example), “which translates into a proposal of tax adjustment of 131 million euros,” explains the subsidiary of Vivendi. Canal+ is not the only one to have used this tax trick: telecom operators were caught for the same reason by the government in 2017.”
Also read: Streaming platform: Canal demands 57 million euros from TF1 for the “+” sign on TF1+
Our two colleagues from Le Monde also write: “The biggest rectification accused of Canal+ concerns the period 2020-2021. For these two years, “the French tax authorities allege that the group is not entitled to the 10% VAT rate, but [doit] applique[r] rather the normal rate of 20% to the entire turnover, on the basis of an allegation that [il] does not provide television services”, Canal+ having become an aggregator of audiovisual content, live and on demand, including from external platforms such as NetflixDisney+ or even AppleTV+”. Note that for its part, the group vigorously contests this request for adjustment.
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