Total will again pay corporation tax in France – Le Figaro

After three years without having acquitted the oil company hopes to “appease polméiques on the subject.”

Total revives the corporate tax (IS) in France. This is his new general manager, Patrick Pouyanné, successor to Christophe de Margerie, who died last October in a car accident in Russia, which announced. “We will pay corporate taxes on our results in 2015 in France. The amount of the tax in 2015 will soon be public, he said in an interview to the weekly L’Usine Nouvelle . I hope this will appease the controversies on the subject. ”

The charge Total tax in respect of its record profits regularly causes controversy. Since 2012, the oil company is in fact not paid tax. Why? For its activities in France (refining, gas stations …) are in deficit. This does not preclude Total to pay annually “950 million of taxes and various taxes in our country per year”, as recalled by Patrick Pouyanné.

The oil company now contribute to corporate tax in France. “This means that our efforts to give a future for our industrial sites are starting to bear fruit,” continues Patrick Pouyanné. Facing structural difficulties in the downstream in France – where refining has lost 200 million euros in 2014 -, the group plans to invest in two plants “fragile”: 400 million “in new equipment” at Donges (Loire-Atlantique), and 200 million “to restore a future industrial site” La Mede (Bouches-du-Rhône) where Total will eliminate 180 jobs. “It’s a profitable operation for us, says Patrick Pouyanné. Build a biorefinery scratch would have cost four times as much! “. He added: “With these future investments, the objective is that our French operations remain durably profitable even when the margins are low.”

“I dream of paying more taxes (in France)”

A statement that is reminiscent, in another style, that, deliberately provocative, Christophe de Margerie, delivered in January 2014, before the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. “I dream of paying more taxes (in France).” Subtext: “I dream that Total makes profits again in France.” On this subject, they are still as impressive, the profits of the oil company fell by 62% in 2014, reaching just over 4 billion dollars, against 11 billion in 2013.