According to information from Worldthe National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) has been carrying out, since Tuesday morning, November 7, a search at the headquarters of SFR, the French telecommunications operator of Patrick Drahi, in the 15e district of Paris.
“This search is linked to a dispute with the tax administration over VAT rates [taxe sur la valeur ajoutée] applied to our TV offers between 2013 and 2019 »confirms Arthur Dreyfuss, chairman and CEO of Altice France, the parent company of SFR. “It takes place peacefully in a spirit of cooperation”he adds.
A judicial source also confirms these searches. “ The PNF received a complaint from an SFR service provider and several complaints from the tax administration targeting the companies SFR Fiber and SFR. An investigation was opened on January 19, 2022 into charges of aggravated tax fraud and laundering of these facts and entrusted to the judicial financial investigation service (SEJF) “, explains this source. The investigation concerns “suspicions of a reduction in VAT on two products marketed by these companies: triple-play offers and press services. The suspected fraud, relating to the 2015 and 2016 financial years, is estimated by the tax administration at nearly 200 million euros in evaded duties. she specifies.
Tax adjustment in 2021
This search is therefore not linked to the alleged corruption affair which has shaken Mr. Drahi’s group since the arrest, on July 13, of his historic associate, Armando Pereira.
SFR was ordered in 2021 to pay a tax adjustment of 420 million euros, which brought the total amount claimed by the administration from the telecoms operator to 830 million euros. The tax authorities accuse Mr. Drahi’s group in particular of having fraudulently used, for several years, VAT on the press, reduced to 2.1% instead of 20%. SFR, for its part, contested this adjustment.
SFR was not the only operator seeking to take advantage of reduced VAT rates applied to ancillary services such as television, the press or digital books, which allowed them to sell their telecoms subscriptions less expensively. Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free (the operator of Xavier Niel, individual shareholder of World) have also used this trick, which has resulted in several tax audits or adjustments.