Apple agrees to pay back-taxes to French authorities

[February 05, 2019]    PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. technology giant Apple said it had reached a deal with France to pay an undeclared amount of back-dated tax, with French media putting the sum at around 500 million euros ($571 million).

A surveillance camera is seen outside an Apple store in Beijing, China December 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

Apple's French division confirmed the tax payment agreement, but did not disclose how much it had agreed to pay.

"As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world," Apple France said in a statement. "The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts."

The French government is pushing for a European Union-wide tax on the world's top digital and software companies.

(Reporting by Simon Carraud; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Luke Baker)

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