Last updated: February 24, 2016
1 minutes read
Continuing battle by EU takes a national turn
France's Finance Minister Michel Sapin has ruled out a tax settlement similar to the $185m deal Google/Alphabet struck with British authorities, stating France is seeking "far greater" sums.
"As far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to 1.6 billion euros," a French finance ministry official told Reuters. The remarks come after Google had just a 5% effective tax rate in Q4, down from 18% a year ago. The EU has been probing the tax payments of Google, Apple, and various other multinationals for some time.
- Separately, Google has begun highlighting articles using its Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) platform within mobile search results. AMP articles, already supported by dozens of publishers, load almost instantaneously after being tapped on. Much like Now on Tap and App Indexing, AMP aims to keep mobile users relying on Google search instead of going directly to apps for content.