2023-05-29 12:45:06
It’s a strange imbroglio in which François-Henri Pinault is entangled. As revealed The Informed, the CEO of the luxury giant Kering has been in dispute for several years with the French tax authorities, to which he is claiming the reimbursement of taxes he considers to have paid wrongly. In vain, for the moment, since the taxman does not want to hear anything, and that the administrative justice dismissed on April 12 the seventh French fortune of its recourse.
We are far from the gigantic scheme of tax evasion in Switzerland, which earned Kering record tax adjustments in France and Italy, in 2019 and 2020. In this new file, which concerns him personally, François-Henri Pinault thought he had the right with him.
The crux of the matter dates back to 2014, when the billionaire moved to London with his family. He then chooses to keep his tax residence in France, and to pay his income tax there, even if he only comes there occasionally. “I am a French citizen and proud of it. I pay my taxes in France”he proclaims in The world in 2015.
One convention, two interpretations
Everything was going well until the British tax authorities in turn asked him for taxes on his salaries as Kering boss, from 2016. Caught in the crossfire, the Pinault taxpayer found himself taxed twice on the same income . With regard to his remuneration, the stakes are considerable: 11.5 million euros for the years 2017 and 2018 alone.
Who is the most legitimate to tax the billionaire? The Franco-British tax treaty, which is supposed to set clear rules for arbitrating in this type of situation and avoiding double taxation, is interpreted differently by the two countries. The UK claims the right to tax Mr Pinault, who spends more than half the year on British soil. France replies that its location does not matter, insofar as its activities as CEO are traceable to the Parisian headquarters of Kering.
Faced with this impasse, François-Henri Pinault was forced to adopt a strategy that was acrobatic to say the least: he claims to exercise his function as CEO of Kering from London, and that of president from Paris. A way of distributing taxable income between the two countries, to please everyone, which seems largely artificial, since these two hats are inseparable.
An expensive “pied-à-terre”
During the litigation, the billionaire developed multiple arguments: London would offer better “privacy guarantees” that Paris would allow him to “escape the daily stresses” and would facilitate his “exposure to an international environment”. But these explanations convinced neither the tax authorities nor the courts. In its decision, judged ” severe “ by several sources familiar with this type of procedure, the administrative court considers that its installation in London “is more a matter of personal convenience than a proven professional imperative”.
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