LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Apple has paid back taxes to the French authorities totalling nearly €500m, it was reported on Tuesday.
The American iPhone giant confirmed it had been audited by French authorities, noting in a statement released by Apple France and reported on Reuters: "As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world.

"The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts."

The company did not reveal the amount paid but French weekly L'Express put the figure at around €500m. It is thought the payment, agreed last December, covers ten years of back taxes.

The deal is understood to have followed several months of talks between Apple and the French authorities, which were concerned by the small amount of revenues booked in France, despite sales of iPhones soaring across the continent.

The French government is pushing for a European Union-wide tax on global digital and software companies such as Apple, Amazon and Facebook, many of which route income through low-tax nations. In 2016, the European Commission ordered Apple to pay Ireland €13bn in back taxes, and last year, Amazon agreed a deal with the French authorities to pay €202m in back taxes for the period 2006 to 2010.

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