The EU says that McDonald's, the Luxembourg tax agreement is not illegal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – McDonald's (MCD.NThe tax settlement with Luxembourg has not violated EU state aid rules, EU antitrust regulators said Wednesday.

The European Commission's decision came after a three-year investigation, part of the crackdown on illegal friendship agreements between EU governments and multinationals, which led to Apple's (AAPL.O), Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Fiat (FCHA.MI) pay billions of euros in arrears.

The Commission stated that the McDonald's tax agreement was in accordance with national tax laws and Luxembourg law. double taxation treaty.

"Our in-depth investigation has shown that double non-taxation in this case is due to a mismatch between Luxembourg and US tax laws and not to special treatment by Luxembourg. As a result, Luxembourg has not broken EU rules on State aid, "said EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.

"Of course, the fact remains that McDonald's did not pay taxes on these profits – and that's not the way it should be in terms of tax fairness," she said. declared.

The survey focused on McDonald's subsidiary, Europe Franchising, which receives franchisee royalties in Europe, Ukraine and Russia.

In a 2009 tax decision, Luxembourg declared that the company did not have to pay taxes on companies because its profits would be taxed in the United States. In a second tax ruling, the Grand Duchy declared that the company was no longer required to prove that its royalty income was subject to US taxation.

Last June, Luxembourg introduced a bill to prevent double non-taxation.

Luxembourg said in a statement that it welcomed the Commission's recognition of the measures it had taken to avoid similar cases in the future.