Taxing your Big Mac

EC to probe McDonald’s tax arrangements with LuxembourgThe European Commission is to investigate McDonald’s over a tax arrangement with Luxembourg. It is not known what aspect of the group’s Luxembourg tax arrangements has triggered the state aid investigation but the decision to launch the probe follows a report on the “LuxLeaks” documents from the charity War on Want and a coalition of union groups. They claim McDonald’s has avoided €1bn in tax payments across Europe. The report focused on the period between 2009 and 2013 when the firm relocated its European headquarters from London to Switzerland and set up a holding company for intellectual property in Luxembourg. A statement from the company read: “From 2010-14, the McDonald’s companies paid more than $2.1bn in corporate taxes in the European Union, with an average tax rate of almost 27%.”