When Canal+ is preparing to enter the London Stock Exchange on December 16, and a few days before the channel’s 40th anniversary, on November 4, there is bad publicity for billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s television group.
In the regulatory prospectus published on October 30 with a view to this IPO, and seen, on October 31, by The informed (one of the shareholders is Xavier Niel, also an individual shareholder of the Group the world), the Vivendi subsidiary acknowledges having received “several rectification proposals” from the French tax authorities, representing a total recovery potential of €655.6 million.
The tax authorities accuse Canal+ of having improperly applied reduced rates of Value Added Tax (VAT) during three different periods. Between 2016 and 2019, the group used rates of 2.10% and 5.5% for some of its services (the Cafeyn digital newsstand, for example). “which translates into a fiscal adjustment proposal of 131 million euros”explains the Vivendi subsidiary. Canal+ is not the only one that has used this tax trick: telecommunications operators were caught, for the same reason, by the government in 2017.
“The group competes vigorously”
The largest rectification accused of Canal+ refers to 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 instead applies the standard 20% rate to all turnover, based on an allegation that (he) does not provide television services »Canal+ has become an aggregator of audiovisual content, live and on demand, even from external platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and AppleTV+.
For these two years, the amount of the fiscal adjustment proposal reaches 457.8 million euros. For the same reason, the Canal+ Group (which supervises the channel) received an adjustment notice of 66.8 million, which covers the period from 1Ahem May to December 31, 2019.
“The group strongly contests the proposed tax adjustments”writes Canal+ in its brochure. It objects, in particular, to the argument that it could no longer claim the 10% VAT for the years 2020 and 2021. “The French tax authorities have not provided any legal evidence that the 2021 VAT law change can be applied retroactively to previous periods or that Canal+ no longer offers television services”argues in its stock document. The position of the tax authorities. “According to which Canal+ no longer provides television services is in contradiction with the exactly opposite position of the National Film Center”duck.
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