Google’s Paris office raided by police in tax probe

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Google’s Paris offices have been raided by hundreds of French investigators—the search giant is suspected of avoiding tax in the country to the tune of €1.6 billion (~$1.78 billion, £1.22 billion).

The French financial prosecutor’s office (Le parquet national financier, PNF) which carried out the raid in the early hours of Tuesday morning, confirmed that the searches were the result of a preliminary investigation opened in June last year into possible “aggravated tax fraud and organised money laundering.”

Google’s European headquarters are based in Ireland, which boasts a tiny 12.5 percent corporation tax—the lowest in the European Union.

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